An Irvine schoolboy treated NHS staff to a £700 takeaway – after going the extra mile with a fundraising idea, writes Kenny Woods.
Aiden Russell, 13, raised the sum by completing the Commando X-Fit Challenge made popular by footballers on social media.
Over five consecutive days, the fit-as-a-fiddle youngster completed a one mile run, 100 burpees, 200 press-ups, 300 squats and another one mile run as his daily exercise.
For extra motivation he decided to raise some money to help local frontline nurses working through the coronavirus crisis.
Donations from family, friends and neighbours got him up and running but that quickly grew and he raised more than £700.
Aiden handed over the cash to front-line NHS staff at Crosshouse Hospital and told them to treat themselves all to a meal or takeaway of their choice.
The youngster admitted he was blown away by how much he raised.
He said: “I love a fitness challenge so wanted to do this one and raise some money at the same time, as we have friends who are in the NHS.
“I thought this would be a good idea, but didn’t think it would raise so much!”.
And delighted dad Scott added: “What’s amazing is I am now seeing others taking up the challenge on Facebook after seeing Aiden complete it, which is astonishing to see, and even more money will be raised in turn for the NHS. We are all very proud of him.”
For the record, the commando style training challenge proved to be no problem for the aspiring young Greenock Morton goalkeeper.
He completed his first attempt in just an hour and had that down to 45 minutes by day five.
