West Lothian trio set to take on 720-mile challenge for charities close to their hearts
A West Lothian family trio are set to take on a 24-hour challenge for charities they hold close to their hearts.
Graeme Cunningham from Fauldhouse, his dad Colin, 66, and his 11-year-old son Cole, who lives in Bathgate are set to visit the grounds of all 42 SPFL clubs. They will depart from Annan on the 720-mile trip next month.
Graeme, 38, a bus driver with Lothian Country and self-confessed 'fitba geek', hopes to raise at least £3,000 to be split equally between baby-loss charity SiMBA, Scottish Autism, and for Cole's team - Bathgate Thistle Community FC.
Graeme said: "I've done stuff for SiMBA before, I knew nothing about them until I lost my daughter Rebecca-Rose who was still-born in 2013, and they helped me and my family then.
"We were in the Royal in Edinburgh and they told me, and my partner at the time, about memory boxes and the tree of tranquillity they have. We have the wee keepsakes to look back on. I was 24 and looking forward to my first wean arriving, you're a bit naïve going into it and you don't expect anything to go wrong.
"It was literally 10 days before her due date. You just don't think of anything like that.
'Cole's football team, I've seen how much it has brought him on and all the other wee boys on with their confidence. It's just a great set-up they have and they put a lot of work and time into the boys and girls there. They are always looking for some help so I thought it would be nice to give back to them.
'The third one is Scottish Autism, my wee sister's oldest daughter, Evie, who is four, has had an autism diagnosis and out of that, it's educated us a bit more. It's helped me, as I had a situation in my job recently where a wee boy was stranded.
"I could tell he was autistic because of my niece I knew what to do to help, probably before I wouldn't have known what to do. I'm quite close to my sister and my niece loves me to bits, so I thought it would be nice to give back to them as well.'
Graeme, Colin and Cole will leave from Annan Athletic's Galabank Stadium at 3pm on Friday, July 18 and aim to finish their trip on the Saturday in Dingwall before 3pm, kick-off time.
'It's something that's always been on my bucket list to try and go and visit all the stadiums,' Graeme revealed. 'I watch the guy on Footy Adventures and stuff like that, and this 24-hour thing came into my head and I thought I'd try it, then I thought it might be a bit ambitious.
'We've planned it out and if you went through every one and never stopped you can do it in about 18 hours, but we're going to stop and get pictures and I've contacted all of the clubs. Teams like Ross County, Aberdeen and Edinburgh City have all got back to me. It's still a month away so hopefully more will get back to me.
'We'll be leaving Annan to Queen of the South, along to Stranraer and then up the west coast. We'll do the Glasgow teams and central Scotland. With Hamilton moving to Broadwood, we'll do there and then Livingston and Edinburgh, then shoot back to Falkirk, then Fife, Tayside, Aberdeen and the rest.
'I've been to most of the big stadiums but I'm looking forward to some of the smaller ones such as Peterhead, as I've never been there. I've been to Cover Rangers' old stadium but I've never seen the new one.'
The online fundraiser can be found at: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/graeme-cunningham-2?
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