December 5th 2023
GOALKEEPING coach, David Osborne is gearing himself up for a monumental cycle in the name of charity, writes Graeme Macleod. The 40-year-old will set off from Perth on Saturday August 13th and peddle all the way through the Cairngorms National Park and back to Nairn in aid of Cancer Research, having seen his family recently affected by the disease. He said: "I received a phone call from my dad a couple of weeks ago letting me know that he has prostate cancer. I lost my uncle last year and my granddad the year before both to cancer while one of my best mates has just beaten it." "When I received the phone call from my dad, I thought I should do something to raise some money to help the cause. I thought about doing a cycle then stupidly decided to go from Perth back to Nairn!" Osborne – an office manager with the Hayley Group in Inverness – is going somewhat into the unknown having no previous serious cycling experience. In fact, he did not even own a bike when he decided to undertake the challenge! He added: "A couple of years ago, I did the Speyside Kiltwalk for charity and I half-thought about doing that again but I decided I wanted to do something different. I then had to look into what route I would attempt and considered going from John O'Groats to Nairn or from Skye back to Nairn but settled on doing 120 miles from Perth." "I will be completing the entire route myself but my boss from work will join me for part of the course and a client from Baxters at Fochabers – who are one of our customers – has said that he will join me for some of it as well. A couple of other people have said they would do a wee bit too, so hopefully there will not be too many lonely miles." "I am travelling down to Perth on the Friday and plan to head off as early as possible on the Saturday. My wife is coming down in the car with me and she will meet me at certain points on the route with refreshments." "I am aiming to be done within about 12 hours, although it might possibly be longer, depending on how much training I manage to do. I am going to do it within the one day though, regardless of how long it takes." Osborne will set off from the Inveralmond Roundabout and will follow the designated cycle route to avoid the busy A9. He will take in all of the towns and villages along the way including Dunkeld, Blair Atholl, Pitlochry and Dalwhinnie before heading for Newtonmore, Kingussie and Aviemore and cutting across the Dava to finish at his Mill Road home in Nairn. You can sponsor David by visiting his JustGiving page at: https://www.justgiving.com/David-Osborne2016. Graeme Macleod
