Meet Meggie, The KiltWalk Mascot

Fellow KiltWalkers, I thought it was about time The KiltWalk Bear (Carey insists he's a man, but he looks like a bear and is the colour of a bear) had a friend, perhaps even a KiltWalk mascot, so I thought it was my duty to pick one.

Now when choosing the mascot I went for a certain look. I decided it had to be a 'she' and I made a list of all the attributes that I would look for, which were she has to have dark, silky hair, deep brown eyes that make your heart melt every time you see her and a devilish, playful sense of humour, and I think I've found the perfect mascot . . . ladies and gentlemen let me introduce you to "Meggie" who is cross collie, springer and alsatian, which is just like the KiltWalk really, a mixture of everything.

Meggie is the loyal family dog of Callum, Karen and Euan Fraser from Aviemore and Meggie loves the "KiltWalk time of year" as it means Callum and her walk up to 40 miles a week as the big day approaches, with her favourite walk taking her from Rothiemurchus shop, where a few treats are picked up for the journey, across the Cairngorm bridge to Loch Morlich where lashing of coffee and water are enjoyed at the Glen More shop.

The good news for Meg is that we have quite a few weeks left of KiltWalk training, so she I'm sure she'll be getting a few long walks and we hope she features in a few more stories before 8th April.

Of course many of you who have "KiltWalked" before may already know Callum, you just "didnae ken you knew him" because Callum is also Spud the Piper, who along with his pal Craig Macfarlane 'piped' yes as in Bag piped all the way round last years 26 miles and as a fledgling piper can I just point out it's hard enough for me to 'blaw intae the bag' never mind walk, so to pipe and walk 26 miles, takes some doing let me tell you.

So to those of you who remember him, or shared a pint with him afterwards, then he's Spud the Piper doing great things by raising money for The Kiltwalk in an extremely original way, however many of you may not know precisely what drives 'Spud' to keep blowing that bag, mile after mile.

The reason Callum does what he does is because he wants to "give something back" to the KiltWalk, which is of course not necessary, as he and his wife Karen have Euan to care for, however he takes valuable time out to raise money with us and for that we're very thankful.

You see Callum's story is that his son Euan is Autistic, and last year the TACC Kiltwalk donated funds to his son's riding school, where he goes weekly, which allowed them to purchase special equipment for his horse, Marigold.

Some of you reading this may think 'a horse' well that's nice, however what you may not know is that children with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) get a lot of pleasure and stimulation from animals in general and horses in particular.

Horse riding for ASD children is hugely beneficial as the child often has poor coordination, strength and muscle tone, so appear clumsy. Therefore riding a horse where they have to keep adjusting their body so they don't fall off, develops strength, while holding reins to steer helps develop coordination between the opposite sides of the body. So it's a wonderful thing that the KiltWalk was able to help Euan in some small way.

So Callum is hugely thankful that The KiltWalk was able to help and therefore he walks every year, raising as much as he can in hope that some of the money he raises, can help children like his own.