A Perthshire man is leading a group of nearly 30 friends in a bid to reach the top of Africa’s highest mountain.
The group – which includes seven former pupils from Morrison’s Academy in Crieff – will set off on their adventure tomorrow and hope to start climbing Kilimanjaro on Thursday.
Nearly all of the group have links to Jamie McLaren, from Crieff, and between them they have raised more than £37,000 for charity.
The money will be donated to water charity Dig Deep, which supplies schools and communities with access to water and sanitation in rural Kenya.
The 21-year-old said the group had gained many local sponsors for the trip.
He said: “The amount of support we have had is unbelievable – it feels like the whole of Crieff is behind us.
“There was a while where there was only three of us signed up and I was a bit worried but now we have a full team of 27. There’s a few I haven’t actually met before but it snowballed into friends of friends. There’s a good number from Perthshire.”
The seeds of the event were sown when Jamie was at university and Dig Deep sent a job application for a team leader – to build the team and make sure everybody gets there.
“I got the job and its been a year of recruiting a team and going into local businesses for sponsorship,” he added.
He said he had prepared as much as possible for the trip but admitted he was a little concerned that he could be hit by altitude sickness.
“I do a lot of hill running as part of running club at uni, which hopefully will do me well on the climb,” he said. “Other people do things that are similar – I have runners as well as kayakers and rugby players and triathletes.
“I do have some concerns. When I was younger I’d go skiing with my dad and I would sometimes get pretty ill with the altitude – I wouldn’t be able to ski for a couple of days.
“I’m also worried that I’ve sold the team the idea that they will get to the top – but I reckon it’s going to be the hardest thing they have ever done.
“However I think they are pretty strong – it’s going to be hard but we’re doing it for a reason and the team will gather round someone and support each other to the top.”
