ScotRail Alliance Train for Charity Trek

Now three members of staff will be setting off on the 14th September for a 6-day trek along the Great Wall of China, to raise money for the charity.

Phil Campbell (Head of Customer Operations), Kelly Long (Customer Experience Support) and Graeme Gordon (Revenue Protection Manager) will be joining 40 other MND Scotland fundraisers for this epic challenge.

Phil said, “I was the instigator of this. I attended the MND Scotland Cornflower Ball last year and was really moved by the work the charity does. It’s a fantastic cause and by the end of the night I’d pledged to do the Great Wall trek. Then I just had to convince a few others to join me, and Kelly and Graeme were both pretty easy to persuade.”

Kelly said, “I wanted to do this trek, not just because MND Scotland is our charity partner, but also because a friend’s brother died of MND. Hearing how quickly her brother deteriorated was awful – it just must be so horrendous for families to go through. Life’s too short, so when Phil asked if I was up for it, I said yes straight away!”

The team have a target of £11,200 and are well on their way to raise the funds by September 2019, when they are due to jet off to Beijing.

Kelly said, “So far we’ve raised almost £6,000 which is really good. I organised a raffle and asked stations across Scotland to get involved. We got some great prizes, including an overnight stay the Grand Central Hotel, tickets to Mrs Brown’s Boys and a Spa day at Cameron House. That all went down really well. In March we’re going to do a zip slide across the Clyde and have roped the apprentices into doing it and raising money for us.

“I’ve also been doing some bucket collections at stations – Edinburgh after the rugby was brilliant. I just asked people to donate to my ‘prosecco fund’ and they were very generous” she joked.

Phil added, “We’re definitely getting there with the fundraising and ScotRail has a match-funding scheme so we’ve been able to up our total with that, which has been a big help.”

Speaking about the trek itself and the training involved, Graeme said, “Looking ahead to the trek, I will enjoy seeing such an iconic world landmark while raising money for a worthy and important cause. I will put in some training by taking part in MND Scotland’s hill walks which are planned over the next eight months to help participants get fit for the challenge.”

Kelly said, “I just cannot wait to go. I’m probably mostly looking forward to experiencing a brand new culture and meeting lots of new people. I love talking to people and would love to hear why everyone is taking on this challenge; each story will be different.”

Morag McGown, MND Scotland’s Corporate Fundraising Manager, said “This will be an experience of a lifetime and it’s really great to see how excited Kelly, Graeme and Phil are about the trek. It’s a fantastic way, not just to raise funds for MND, but also awareness with staff and customers across the country.

“ScotRail Alliance has already raised £180,000 for MND Scotland, through staff fundraising, station collections, match-funding and gifts-in-kind, so the team’s fundraising efforts for China will help boost that even further.

“The funds raised from this incredible partnership will help us continue providing vital support to everyone in Scotland who is affected by MND, as well fund research which is taking us closer to a cure.”

To donate to Team ScotRail please click here.