A WEE COUNTY man is gearing up to run to Tynecastle from Inverness as part of five intense running challenges in memory of his father.

Gregor Miller lost his dad to motor neuron disease in 2019 and has devoted the whole of this year to raising as much as he can for various charities.

He has picked out five running events, each one increasing in difficulty, that he aims to complete over the course of the year.

Gregor, from Sauchie, completed the first challenge on Sunday March 12, by participating in the Inverness half marathon.

From there, he plans to up his game by taking on the Manchester marathon in April before running along the Union Canal from Glasgow to Edinburgh for the third challenge in May.

In June, he plans to run the Scottish Ultra 106 miles in 24 hours by going around the track at Stirling University 400 times before taking on the bumper fifth challenge by running from Caledonian Stadium in Inverness to Tynecastle over the course of 46 hours in September.

“My dad got diagnosed with motor neuron disease and he died in 2019,” Gregor explained. “He was with Central Scotland Police for 33 years and was based in Alloa.

“I thought I wanted to do something for motor neuron disease so two years ago I ran from Stirling Castle to Tynecastle – I’m a Hearts fan, you see.

“This year, I wanted to come back with a vengeance so I thought I would do five challenges, ever increasing, and see if I can raise as much awareness and funds for motor neuron disease.”

Gregor’s dad was diagnosed just a few days before Scottish rugby player, Doddie Weir, received his MND diagnosis, whilst Hearts legend Marius Žaliūkas died from the disease in 2020.

With these three in mind, Gregor chose MND Scotland, The Euan MacDonald Centre and the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation as the charities he would choose to fundraise for.

“I’m not a runner by any stretch of the imagination,” Gregor added. “The challenge for me is putting my trainers on and getting out there and doing it.

“I’m just trying to push it hard that we should be looking into motor neuron disease as much as we can.”

Gregor’s fundraiser can be found on his social media pages: Caley-Castle Crusade on Facebook and Instagram and @mymnd5challenge on Twitter.