The Hour

Two firemen have travelled from southern tip to the northern point of the Outer Hebrides in a 300 mile human powered journey in order to raise money for charity.

Gary Mackay and Lee Payton set themselves a 60 hour limit to complete the self appointed challenge which saw the fire fighters visit each of the 15 islands, cycle across them, run to the highest hill on the islands before kayaking to the next.

The pair have completed the Great Scottish Run wearing their full fire fighting gear and managed to raise a several thousand pound for children cancer charity CLIC Sargent.

Despite admitting the idea may have been “in the name of stupidity slightly”, the pair had to plan extensively for the trip, including getting themselves in the physical shape necessary to complete such a challenge.

“We started the process around 11 months ago. We had a good base level of fitness anyway, but we were short on the technical aspects long distance road cycling and kayaking,” said Payton, who was last in a kayak when 11-years-old.

Mackay revealed the pair were warned off kayaking the waters around Scotland’s coast as they can be the most tidal and turbulent, but maintained the cautions failed to deter them from their mission.

Payton and Mackay raised £11,000 for CLIC Sargent charity and have given themselves plenty of time to recover before setting out on their next fundraising adventure which is currently being planned.