Charity walks raise thousands

THOUSANDS of pounds was raised for charity in Shetland at the weekend thanks to a trio of sponsored walks.

Over £5,000 is expected to have been raised for British Heart Foundation and Macmillan Nurse Shetland from the biennial Miles For Polly walk, which covered 20 miles from Laxo to Lerwick on Sunday.

Organiser Janet Hamilton-Dunnet said twenty people took part on the day, including members of the Lerwick ladies darts team.

She added that the walk is named in honour of a member of the club who passed away.

“I decided two years ago to do something for charity and a lot of the Lerwick ladies darts club walked with me from Sumburgh to Lerwick,” Janet said.

“I wanted to put a name to the walk so called it Miles For Polly as one of our players was Polly Thomson from Lerwick had just passed away, so what better than put her name into the walk.”

Over £2,500 meanwhile was raised for Crohn’s & Colitis UK at the weekend by staff from the NorthLink Ferries boat Hjaltland and the Trondra women’s squad after they walked from Scalloway to Lerwick.

On Saturday Sarah Hunter raised over £200 for British Red Cross by walking the opposite direction from Scalloway to the town.