As most will be aware from last year’s Charity Walk, osteoarthritis has caught up with Managing Director Douglas McCrea meaning that he has been awaiting a second hip replacement, which has now been scheduled for September 24^th 2024.

Being at the stage now where walking even relatively modest distances can be a struggle, Douglas spoke to the orthopaedic surgeon who looked at him incredulously when he asked how long after the hip-operation he could do a 100km+ walk, as it turned out that this wasn’t a common query and it’s the first time that he’d been asked that!

Having been told a minimum 6 months, Douglas felt as though that was too far off as that would make it over a year and a half since he tackled the Kintyre Way in August 2023.

Due to this, on the week commencing 5^th August, Douglas has chosen to dust off the walking boots one last time before the hip-op and will tackle his ‘Stage 1: Pre-Op’ Walk; The Clyde Walkway, a 65km walk over four days which begins in Partick in the West End of Glasgow and ends in New Lanark.

The hillier ‘Stage 2: Post-Op’ walk is planned for early 2025 which unfortunately means the weather likely won’t be the best, although the exchange of a fully working hip on the walk will be sufficient for Douglas!

This year we have set ourselves a fundraising target of £25,000 each (£50,000 total) for Revive MS Support and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity to coincide with McCrea turning 25 years old. If you would like to contribute to one (or indeed both) of our wonderful charities, you can do so on our Revive MS Support Just Giving Page by clicking here, or our Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity by clicking here.

A huge thank you in advance for the support, and please do keep an eye out on the week commencing 5^th August for Douglas’ Annual Charity Walk daily blog!