Six Aberdeen Businessmen Urge Seriously Ill North-East Children To Come Forward With A Dream

Six Aberdeen businessmen have teamed up to take part in the gruelling New York Marathon to raise money for seriously or terminally ill North-east children.

Jim Mitchell, Managing Director of JKM, and wealth finance expert Gary Walker of the St. James’s Place Partnership, will pound the streets with Dave Lawrie of Amerada Hess, David Gray of Lloyds TSB, finance advisor Harry Bowman and estate agent Charlie Bain.

The marathon men, who range from age 42 to 53, are running the event in November in support of children’s charity Dreams Come True, which fulfils the dreams of youngsters suffering from a life-threatening illness or a long-term debilitating condition.

More than three thousand children have benefited from the charity since it was founded in 1988 but they want to encourage more North-east children to come forward with their dreams.

Jim Mitchell said: “The impact that Dreams Come True has on the children who benefit is immense, not only to them but also to their close family and carers.  They were one of a few charities which could match our desire to ensure the money we raised would help our local community.

“We hope that our efforts will help highlight the wonderful work done by them and ensure that more people come forward with their respective dreams so children in and around Aberdeen can benefit from this caring charity.”

Gary Walker said: “As parents we felt this was an opportunity to help children not as fortunate as our own.  This is a fantastic charity and we hope we can raise a substantial amount of money for them.”

Dreams Come True strive to fulfil a dream every day across the UK but they are hoping the effort of the six businessmen in Aberdeen will encourage more seriously ill children in the North-east to come forward with a dream.

Charity spokesman Philip Pride said: “We are delighted that the funds raised by Jim, Gary and the rest of the team will be used to fulfil dreams for terminally and seriously ill children in Aberdeen and North-east Scotland.

“As a national charity we attach great importance to fulfilling dreams in all parts of the UK and the team’s great efforts and achievements will enable us to bring much needed happiness to children close to home in Aberdeen.”

The six runners combined have already raised up to nineteen thousand and they are hosting a fundraising event this Friday.

Some members of the team also took part in this year’s London Marathon and already raised £6,000 for the charity.

Last year four of them ran the New York marathon and succeeded in raising £25,000 for a cancer charity.

This year the event, known as one of the world’s greatest road races, takes place on November 4th.  It attracts more than 90,000 applicants each year and is watched by two million spectators and 315 million worldwide TV viewers