Fundraisers who took part in one of Scotland’s most gruelling charity challenges have gathered to celebrate their achievements.
Dozens of participants of this year’s inaugural Cateran Yomp gathered at the Alliance Trust building in Dundee to learn they had raised more than £280,000 to help injured servicemen and women.
Hundreds of yompers were at the Cateran Trail in June to complete the 54-mile trek to raise funds for ABF The Soldiers Charity.
As prizes were awarded on Monday evening to mark the achievements of some of those who took part, the scale of the success of the event became fully clear.
Brigadier Robin Bacon, chief of staff at The Soldiers Charity, addressed those at the reception, thanking them for their participation.
”There are more and more casualties and more and more hardship and the cost of modern technology staggers me,” he said.
”I recently met an American serviceman who lost his leg in Afghanistan and his prosthetic leg actually had a gyroscope inside of it. The things that he could do with it were amazing but this cost around $50,000.
”It is very humbling when you meet these people and we have already been helping our servicemen for 60 years. We hope to help for the next 60 years.”
The yomp started at Blairgowrie and offered teams three routes consisting of 23, 37 or 54 miles, to be completed within 24 hours. The full route would see teams returning to Blairgowrie, with the other routes terminating at Kirkmichael and Spittal of Glenshee.
More than 200 people took part in the event, which offered brief respite at times with activities including clay pigeon shooting and archery.
The Ski Patrol team, formed of Alliance Trust employees from Dundee, were crowned fastest corporate team after completing the 54 miles in just over 15 hours.
Team member Sam Ford said: ”We’re quite sporty people and some of us had already done the Caledonian Challenge, so we knew what to expect when we got there.
”I think we raised over £1,500 and it wasn’t hard encouraging people to help us.”
Staff from the Alliance Trust, who were title sponsors of the Cateran Yomp, raised over £28,000.
A team from Edinburgh firm Cairn Energy raised the most as a single team, collecting more than £19,000.
John Caldwell, head of information and data management, was one of those who took part and he said: ”For the team event there was eight us and we all asked our colleagues, friends and families to help us raise money.
”The company also agreed to go pound for pound, which was a great help.
”It’s for the Soldiers Charity and obviously there’s a lot of stuff that has been happening in Afghanistan and the like, and that is something that we gladly got involved with.”
Plans are already under way for next year’s event. Organisers have earmarked June 30 for the yomp, with the Alliance Trust once again pledging its support.
To register interest visit www.soldierscharity.org/yomp