The Beast was back at Loch Ness!

Tough participants ran, crawled, and dragged their way over muddy obstacles, into freezing loch water and down a giant water slide for charity on Saturday 28th August as they took part in the gruelling Beast Race, held at Aldourie Estate, Loch Ness.

It certainly was a monster challenge for Shaun MacLeod and his family team “Hilda’s Heroes” who signed up to take part in the Loch Ness Beast Race in memory of their beloved Nannie, Hilda Ramsay, who passed away last year.

The team had an absolute ball and although were nervous at the start of the race, they attacked with Beast with great gusto!

“It was absolutely amazing!” said Shaun. “We are all totally buzzing, it was such good fun!  We helped each other over the course and honestly it was just brilliant.  Plus raising over £2,300 made it even better!!! We would definitely take part again!”

Amongst the team with Shaun, originally from Inverness were his brother Ryan, 23; cousin Shannon Cordiner, 28, of Aberdeen, and Gemma Dawson, 25, of Inverness; alongside Gemma’s partner Aaron Camplin, 27, and Gemma’s brother-in-law, Dylan Burke, 26, of Inverness and Gemma’s mum Kathleen 57 and her husband James Stewart, 53 of Inverness.

Shaun, who works in IT, said: “We wanted to find a challenge to do as a family that would also be in memory of my Nannie, who died last year. She loved nothing more than spending time with her grandkids.

“Dylan also lost his dad to a heart attack in 2019 and because Nannie had had a couple of strokes, we knew Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland was the right fit for us. We know the good work CHSS is doing.”

Shaun and his team enjoyed a bit of family reunion at the event by all getting together for this special occasion.  They had originally set out with a fundraising target of £1,000 which they have since smashed and have currently raised over £2,300 for Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland.

Hayley Simpson, Fundraising Manger at Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland said: “What an incredible day we had at the Beast Race.  The weather was glorious with the sun shining all day!  Our amazing supporters tackled the course with enormous enthusiasm.  It was such a great atmosphere!

“Thank you to everyone who joined us it was great to see people in-person again.  It’s thanks to teams like Hilda Heroes raising funds for us that we are able to make sure that people living in Scotland get the support they really need when they return home from hospital.  Every penny raised will make sure that people can do more than survive.”

You can help boost Shaun and his group’s fundraising total at: justgiving.com/fundraising/ramsayfamily-1