Broxburn wanderers go marching in!
Today’s Charity Champions are The Broxburn Wanderers; Brian Chapman, Daniel Farrel and Gordon Niven. The group began walking from Hampden Park to Tynecastle Park early this morning, to raise money for Big Hearts – the charity of Heart of Midlothian Football Club.
As a Hearts season ticket holder, Brian, along with his Celtic supporting colleagues Daniel and Gordon, will be walking from Glasgow to Edinburgh. They are hoping to make it to the stadium in time for kick-off. “We want to show people that no matter what team you support, football fans can come together and do great things for people less fortunate.”
Brian is a great admirer of Big Hearts and decided they would raise money to help support their projects. “I’ve noticed the charity’s posts on social media, and I think the work they do within the local community is fantastic! They help people with mental health, families living in poverty and provide support for younger people too. That’s why we made the decision to give any money collected to them.”
The boys are no strangers to walking for charity having previously walked from the Oatridge Hotel in Uphall to Tynecastle Park. This time round they have decided to set an even bigger challenge. Brian said, “It is a bit crazy, but it’s just something that popped into my head one day. I thought, I want to walk from Hampden to Tynecastle.”
In preparation for the challenge, the boys have been out walking every weekend “We are walking a few miles each weekend to break the shoes in, 47 miles is a long walk. We are all really looking forward to the challenge and can’t wait to complete it!”
As part of their fundraising, the boys organised a raffle and online auction. “We’ve had a lot of fun organising everything. Everyone has been so generous donating prizes. We had a stroll from Uphall to Broxburn asking local businesses if they could help us out. This helped our confidence levels.”
The online fundraising page is still open if you would like to make a small donation – bighearts.enthuse.com/pf/broxburn-wanderers-a1579
Good luck to Brian, Daniel and Gordon. Thank you for supporting Big Hearts, you are all true charity champions!
– September 21