On Sunday 11 July 2010, four generations of the Macdonald family will take on the Big 80 Challenge to help Aberdeen Royal Infirmary buy a ‘shockwave therapy’ machine for the treatment of venous ulcers. Every member of the family, ranging in age from 5 to 84, is going to take part in an 80 mile journey - on foot, by bike, and even by mobility scooter - and we need as many people as possible to sponsor us.
Why? Because the matriarch of the family, Marion Macdonald (known to her friends as Muriel), has been suffering from a venous leg ulcer for seven years, and it has not responded to conventional treatment. In March this year she began a trial using the shockwave machine and the results have been remarkable: the size of the wound has been significantly reduced, and she has been able to reduce her painkilling medication by 50%, which has lead to a huge improvement in her quality of life.
The Dermagold 100 machine used for this treatment was very generously supplied on a short term loan by its manufacturer, MTS Europe. The Vascular Unit at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary are keen to buy their own machine, but it costs £40,000 and NHS Grampian simply does not have the resources available. We want to help other people to have access to this treatment, so in honour of Muriel's 80th birthday, we're taking the Big 80 Challenge to raise money which can be put towards the cost of the machine.
80th Birthday, 80 miles - it was an obvious connection, but the route has taken a bit of planning. In the end we chose to plot much of the route along the old Deeside Railway Line, which has now been converted into a cycle path. Muriel's husband Donnie worked as a station master for most of his career, and one of his first posts in the early years of their marriage was at Glassel Station, which was part of this line. The railway line was closed in the 1960s, but their old station cottage is still standing and in use as a family home.
The route starts in Peterculter, and from there the first cyclists will head in to Duthie Park in Aberdeen, which is the official starting point of the Deeside Way, then double back along the same path, following it as far as Banchory. The middle part of the railway line hasn't been converted to a cycle path yet, so the next section of the route follows the A980 road, passing the former sites of Glassel, Torphins, and Lumphanan stations, before taking a minor road to Dess. The cycle path then continues along the old railway through Aboyne and Ballater. From Ballater we'll follow a circular route on a mixture of road and dirt track round Glen Muick, before taking the cycle path back to Aboyne, where the whole family will meet up at the end of the day.
Each member of the family will set their own personal challenge. For some of us that will mean cycling the full 80 miles, while others will complete a section of the route, but nobody is allowed to choose something that they will find easy.