Adventurous Alexandria youngster climbs Ben Lomond in memory of late dad

dailyrecord.co.uk:

An inspirational youngster has raised more than £3000 for the British Heart Foundation in memory of his much-loved dad.Adventurous Connor Gray, 11, decided he wanted to scale Ben Lomond to raise funds for the charity after dad, Scott, passed away last year at the age of just 43 following a heart attack.The Christie Park Primary pupil was determined to do something positive to make Scott, who worked as a chef at Cucina in Balloch, proud - and settled on scaling Ben Lomond in an attempt to raise £150 for charity.However Connor and his family have been blown away after smashing their target - with £3280 raised.Proud mum Stacey Gillies told the Lennox: “He can see Ben Lomond from his bedroom, and he was looking out and just said he wanted to climb it.

So that’s what we did.“We had asked his uncles to join in with him and make it a real family thing.“We did some trials up at Conic Hill first of all because we were a bit dubious if he’d make it or not, but he smashed it.

He was amazing.“At the top of Ben Lomond I had a tear in my eye. Both sets of family had balloons and banners for him.“ It was amazing and I’m so proud of him.

For someone at 11-years-old to come up with that idea is really special.“His dad would be chuffed to bits for him.“Connor wanted to make his dad proud and he would be.