Highland Cross Latest News |
Highland Cross 2025 - Saturday 21 June 2025 |
March 2025
Justgiving - click here to
set up a fundraising page for the 2025 event.
February 2025
Team
entry payment reminder – deadline is Wednesday 26th February
Team
entry owners are reminded that if they wish to take up the offer of
a team place for this year’s Highland Cross, then they need to
complete the process by paying the entry fee before the deadline of
midnight on Wednesday 26th February – see your acceptance email from SiEntries on 5th February.
You
should log in to SiEntries and go to "My Entries / Memberships" to
find your Highland Cross 2025 email acceptance dated 5th February
and click on "Accept Invitation" to convert
your entry to a full one by accepting all the terms and conditions,
and this will take you to the payment process.
If
payment is not received by midnight on 26th February, your team
place may be offered to one of the teams on the waiting list.
The following are statements from the charities that
are to benefit from Highland Cross 2025:
Badenoch and Strathspey Community ConnXions (BSCX)
Badenoch and Strathspey Community ConnXions (BSCX) is a registered
charity that was set up in 1999 by the community for the community. Our
purpose is to strengthen our community by providing accessible transport
and wellbeing opportunities. Over the years we have grown our services
based on local need and now offer social activities, assisted shopping,
green health and a befriending service.
We believe that transport is the building block to good health and
wellbeing. Our work prevents loneliness and isolation, and we provide
accessible transport so people can attend health appointments, leisure
activities and weekly shopping trips. We work closely with many local
groups and provide the transport to enable their activities to take
place.
We have 25 years of experience in operating our services and are well
regarded across the Community Transport Sector, winning UK Community
Transport Association Provider of The Year in 2023. We have service
level agreements and a range of long-term funders.
Our work directly supports around 400 people every year and has a social
value of over £320k. We have a small team of 8 P/T staff and 60
volunteers who all care deeply about our community.
This funding will allow us to replace our accessible minibus which is
now uneconomical to repair. The new vehicle will be utilised straight
away and will provide many years of accessible transport for our wider
community.
Highland Homeless Trust t/a Gateway
Gateway values affording opportunities to vulnerable adults. Pioneering
in approach, we work hard to provide creative, innovative solutions
through collaboration and partnership.
Gateway has invested significantly in purchasing a beautiful home to
provide supported living for six people with learning disabilities. The
house is in the small hamlet of Upper Myrtlefield, Inverness, with
extensive grounds allowing residents to enjoy the outdoors and create
spaces of interest.
Being a successful recipient of Highland Cross funds will enable the
purchase of a vehicle that will suit the needs of our supported people,
providing the last essential to this bespoke project.
Transport can be difficult to use for people with additional support
needs. By promoting residents' well-being and in keeping with our values
and principles, Gateway wants to ensure that the residents have many
opportunities and independence to socialise and participate in the many
varied community-based activities in and around Inverness.
Through listening, we have learned that being active and out in the
community can help those we support feel happier, included, and valued.
We want people to be able to do what they enjoy and make their own
choices about what they do, when they do it and who they spend their
time with.
This vehicle will benefit the residents by improving their opportunities
for further integration into the community, providing access to new
events and places, and providing opportunities for learning through
experience to maintain and improve long-term health outcomes.
Rag Tag and Textile Ltd
We are a charity on Skye providing support through creative craft
workshops to people with mental illness or poor mental wellbeing. In
this rural area where statutory services are often missing or
overstretched our service is vital. The people we help are referred to
us by healthcare professionals because they need our support.
Students receive training in a variety of crafts during tutor-led
workshops, gaining self-esteem from producing items they keep or offer
for sale in our attached charity shop. We aim to increase students’
confidence, motivation and wellbeing, to improve social skills, and to
help them make friends and connections within the local community, where
we often do joint work. We are recovery-focussed and provide
opportunities and assistance for students to volunteer and, where
appropriate, to move on to employment.
Many of our students struggle to reach us because public transport is
poor, or because they need a door-to-door service owing to physical
disabilities or anxiety issues. We provide a limited taxi service but
the cost at over £1000 per month is unsustainable. We face the prospect
of having to deny some students a service if we cannot find an
alternative.
Our application for a minibus would solve this problem, and would also
allow us to engage more widely with other community groups. It would
allow us to take students to craft fairs, exhibitions of their own work,
horticultural therapy sessions, and on social visits away from our home
base – to enhance their mental wellbeing and to have fun.
Skye and Lochalsh Mental Health Association
If successful in gaining this Highland Cross funding, we would purchase
a hybrid minibus in order to provide equality of access to our
well-established drop-in centre (Am Fasgadh) in Portree. We would use
the minibus to provide transport for the people of South Skye and
Lochalsh (SSL), at least twice a week and one weekend in 5, from home to
Am Fasgadh and back again.
Living with mental illness is isolating, sometimes just managing to get
up and dressed takes all your effort far less trying to get to a bus
(that might not be there) to access support services. The remote and
rural nature of SSL means it is more difficult than in other areas to
access services. We have researched what our members need and want from
our service. Overwhelmingly, they have told us, what they want is to
feel a bigger part of our community and to be able to attend Am Fasgadh
in Portree.
Am Fasgadh is a safe place where we can meet, build relationships, and
access a hot, home cooked meal daily. Running this minibus service will
allow SSL members to access the same facilities and supports as the
Portree and North Skye service users.
We would also use the minibus to provide improved access to trips for
all our service users. Just because you have mental health issues that
should not prevent you from having great experiences and making memories
while still being supported.
Highland Cross 2024 - Photography
Click here to view images from Alligin Photography.
Click here to view images from David Stewart.
November
2024
HIGHLAND
CROSS 2024 – 40th running of the event
Highland
Cross reaches over £6.3million! The figure
raised in 2024 from Highland Cross participants is £368,295!
On 14
November 2024, the 4 principal charities received presentations:
-
Cantraybridge
– are purchasing a new minibus
-
Highland BlindCraft
– are purchasing a new van
-
Highland Disability
Sport – are
purchasing a new minibus
-
L’Arche Highland
– are purchasing a new vehicle
In addition
to the primary causes, the participants’ success will also allow
some smaller grants to be distributed to charities across Highland
over the next month. The Organisers
would once again like to thank competitors, sponsors and volunteers
for their continued support of Highland Cross.
The two teams comprising of folk from the Edinburgh based
investment management firm Baillie Gifford and Dell Technologies
(Richard McGrail, Tom Stockwell, Kenny Hamilton, Stuart Dunbar,
Gareth Owen and Stephen Bosarge) raised an astonishing sum of
£26,229 as the top fundraisers this year and the top standard three
person team is a team called “Heathers Heroes” comprising of Ryan
Magennis, Donal Bolger and Mike Roberts who raised a magnificent
figure of £7,520.
Top 10 |
Team Amount Raised |
Team Name |
Competitor Names |
|
|
|
|
1 |
£7,520.00 |
Heathers Heroes |
Ryan Magennis |
|
|
|
Donal Bolger |
|
|
|
Mike Roberts |
|
|
|
|
2 |
£6,420.11 |
Over the Hill |
Steven Scott |
|
|
|
Colin Maclean |
|
|
|
Calum Matheson |
|
|
|
|
3 |
£5,143.00 |
Simpson Builders |
Gordon Simpson |
|
|
|
Greg Walker |
|
|
|
Scott Craig-Mackie |
|
|
|
|
4 |
£4,591.15 |
Bibbys Bravehearts |
Clare Smith |
|
|
|
Jayne Bibby |
|
|
|
Ross Bibby |
|
|
|
|
5 |
£3,787.76 |
The Cross Clubbers |
Louise Macleod |
|
|
|
Cameron Stark |
|
|
|
Angela Hamilton |
|
|
|
|
6 |
£3,512.74 |
The Kintail Connection |
John Talbot |
|
|
|
Richard Talbot |
|
|
|
Andrew Talbot |
|
|
|
|
7 |
£3,505.71 |
Pony Express |
John Dean |
|
|
|
Richard Dean |
|
|
|
Adam Brennan |
|
|
|
|
8 |
£3,360.00 |
Inside Out |
Alex Jamieson |
|
|
|
David Jamieson |
|
|
|
John MacLeod |
|
|
|
|
9 |
£2,859.18 |
PDG (Please Dinnae Greet) |
Shaun Strain |
|
|
|
Andrea Taylor |
|
|
|
Ben Roberts |
|
|
|
|
10 |
£2,753.00 |
The "Are we there yets" |
Piers Renshaw |
|
|
|
David Boddie |
|
|
|
James Beastall |
|