A GROUP of employees from Tillicoultry's Nike store will take to the skies later this month to raise money for a children's hospital in Glasgow.

The five workers – Eilidh McLaren, Rachael Halliday, Mark Telfer, Adam Main and Shona Hamilton – will skydive from 10,000 feet in order to raise £2,500 on September 23.

Their efforts were sparked after hearing about the plight of a young girl called Amelie Trotter, 5, who is suffering from cancer of the eye.

Eilidh, one of those taking part, said: "They're trying to find treatments for Amelie, but they don't want to operate because of where the cancer is, it will leave her visually impaired.

"So she goes to GCH for treatment and they're trying to find other ways of treating it for her.

"That was the story which inspired us," she added. "But I was also in Yorkhill, which used to be the children's hospital in Glasgow, when I was a baby, so I know that it's a really good charity.

"Shona, one of the other divers, her daughter also spent some time in the hospital, too."

The idea began when Mark was asked by Amelie's aunt if he would put a fundraising poster up in the Tillicoultry store.

He then decided that he wanted to do more, and someone came up with the fantastic idea of skydiving.

After that, the other four adrenalin-junkies were, by their own admission, roped into taking part.

Rachael said: "It was someone else who came up with the idea of the skydive – he conveniently can't do the dive anymore.

"It just went from there and I was there when it was spoken about so I was happy to do it. I knew if I said no to this then I would regret it."

She continued: "We're looking to raise £2,500 and we're at just over £1,000 between charity buckets and our Just Giving page. We want to raise £500 each."

The goodwill of the team does not end with the death-defying stunt, however.

For the more faint-hearted, there is a stationary bike in store which the staff, and customers, can hop on and off of at the weekends.

Eilidh said: "The people on the bike are going to be cycling from the store to our European headquarters in the Netherlands. It's roughly 698 miles.

"We'll have people cycling at the front of the store and just tagging in and out throughout the day."

If you want to donate to the team's cause visit justgiving.com/fundraising/teamtillyskydive2017