Three arduous challenges for Gilly

Gilly Dempster (50), a nursery practitioner at Little Beehives in Tay Street, walked 26 miles, bagged a munro and swam 64 lengths of a pool in the space of a few days to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer Support in memory of her dad Clement, who died of the disease.

Gilly’s challenge – which she called a ‘tri-chara-ton’ – brought back poignant memories of her dad, who worked in the civil engineering department of Dundee University.

Her mile-long swim took place in the university’s pool where she and her dad went swimming when she was a child.

“For as long as I can remember, we used to frequent the university pool as often as we could,” she said.

“I swam my first mile there, did my first life saving class there and even swam my first full underwater length.

“I wanted to choose a location which meant something to me and honoured his memory. Being able to do the mile in this pool made it very special for me.

“I bagged the munro with a friend so that was very enjoyable, and adding in the marathon walk made it tough but rewarding, as I have completed everything within a few days of one another!”

Gilly’s own personal challenge, which she hopes will raise around £300 for Macmillan, was part of a week-long series of charity fund raising events, from sponsored silences, to dress up days, to sponsored space hops along Kirkcaldy prom, which took place across all five Little Beehive Nurseries in Fife and Angus.

“This was a nursery wide initiative to raise money for a whole host of different charities during the first week of May,” said Gilly,

“But I made this very personal to myself by choosing to raise the money in memory of my dad.”

Little Beehives managing director Jennifer Martin expressed her admiration for Gilly’s efforts.

She said: “Gilly is to be commended for taking on this tough challenge. She really has thrown everything into this.

“I am so proud of my staff who have embraced our week-long charity push and carried out all kinds of amazing things, from a zany spacehopper challenge to a Pedal-For-Pounds challenge.”

“We have a GoFundMe page set up and are looking forward to getting our grand total together.”

She added: “Our parents took this on board too, and donated to the GoFundMe page, for which we are very grateful indeed.”

Donation links are still open and can be found on the Little Beehive Nursery Facebook page.