The Golden Thread that Binds us Together

The last few weeks have reminded me that there's a Golden Thread that binds Kiltwalkers together and that thread is the desire to walk for Scotland's Children and our Partner Charities in general and in many cases a particular cause specifically.

Where the latter is the case then time and again we hear a familiar theme and that is "The Kiltwalk has been away of allowing us to help those, helping us" or "The Kiltwalk is away we can focus on something positive and not dwell on the negatives".

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of meeting some of Ailsa's Asda Army as they worked tirelessly, backpacking on a busy Saturday at my local Asda store in Newton Mearns.

It was too good an opportunity to not go along an say hello and, as ever, after meeting Kirsteen and Lisa, I'm glad I did and can only admire what they're doing to raise money for The Kiltwalk Charities, Yorkhill and the Anthony Nolan Trust

When I arrived Kirsteen, Ailsa's Mum, was having a well deserved break, so I got chatting to Lisa, who is Ailsa's Godmother. Within minutes I was totally captivated by everything Ailsa Croll and just knew I had to share the story of Ailsa, her family and wonderful supporters.

I asked, as I always do, "how did you hear of The KIltwalk" and I had an immediate glow when I heard their source, or in the case sources.

The team first heard about the Kiltwalks through the Croll's friends Sine and Fraser Coull, sound familiar? whom they met in the Schiehallion ward, and from Ailsa's godmother's cousin - Elaine Mitchell - who walked all 5 of the Kiltwalks in 2013. Inspired by the amazing fundraising efforts of The Aila Coull Foundation, one of our Partner Charities for The Speyside Kiltwalk, and by Elaine's achievements, Kirsteen and 7 of her friends decided to follow in their footsteps (quite literally) and walk all of the Kiltwalks.


So just who is this beeming, beautiful girl Ailsa Croll, pictured above, who despite not having her troubles to seek has her arms outstretched as if she's just won her first school race!!

Ailsa Croll is 4 years old and lives in Dundonald Ayrshire with her mum (Kirsteen), dad (Neil) and big sister (Caitlin) who is 7 years old. At the age of 2 years old, Aisla was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, a rare and life threatening blood disorder, in March 2012.

The disease first appeared when Ailsa and her mum were at a family friend's house for a play date, where they noticed bruises quickly spreading across her body. Kirsteen's friend, a GP, phoned pediatrics at Crosshouse Hospital and they were told to come into the hospital straight away. Following blood tests, they were immediately transferred to the Schiehallion Hematology/Oncology Unit at Yorkhill Hospital.

After four months of grueling blood and bone marrow tests, Ailsa's condition, Aplastic Anemia, was confirmed. Ailsa's family and friends were hopeful the immune-suppression therapy that was administered in July 2012, would help Ailsa's condition, however sadly this failed. It was at this time the family were told the only cure the disease would be a successful bone marrow transplant. That of course is easier said than done, as getting a Bone Marrow match isn't a simple task to undertake.

Ailsa's condition has been closely monitored and managed by her wonderful and dedicated medical team at Yorkhill - attending the Schiehallion Unit three times a week, as well as periods spent in the ward and intensive care. Part of her treatment and care has been weekly platelet and blood transfusions as well as numerous surgical procedures, while waiting for a suitable bone marrow donor to be found for transplant.

The family have also come close to losing Ailsa on two seperate occasions, when she contracted severe blood infections, with hours spent in the resuscitation unit fighting infection with not just medical help, but her sheer will to win her battle.

Anthony Nolan, the UK blood cancer charity and bone marrow register, have worked tirelessly to help the medical team try to save Ailsa's life, by finding not just one, but two bone marrow donor matches.

Ailsa received her first transplant in May 2013. Unfortunately, like the initial treatment back in July 2012, it was not successful and Ailsa and her devastated family had to wait a further six months for another match to be found.

Amazingly, thanks to Anthony Nolan, Ailsa received her second transplant in January 2014 and so far progress is encouraging, but it will be many months before they know if it has been successful. Words cannot express her parents' gratitude at the selfless donors who put themselves forward to donate their bone marrow and to give Ailsa a chance of life.

In an effort to show their gratitude, Ailsa's parents and their friends have dedicated themselves over the past two years, to raising awareness of the Anthony Nolan charity, encouraging others to sign up to the bone marrow register.

To add yourself to the register costs the Anthony Nolan Charity, £125, however it's worth every penny as every person who registers, which includes those reading this Blipfoto Journal, are potentially a life saver.

To this end a huge number in their local community joined the register online and a donor drive, held in Troon, in June 2012, with the support of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue, added a further 318 individuals to the register. A large number of people have also registered as donors via the 'Ailsa's Appeal' Facebook page.

Of course in addition to their efforts to date, and thanks to Sine, Fraser and Elaine, Team Ailsa came to fruition when they registered for the Glasgow Kiltwalk.

Building the team and training for the event, provided Kirsteen and her friends with something positive to focus on while Ailsa was in for her second bone marrow transplant, and they hope to raise as much money as possible to say thank you to all the amazing charities that have supported Ailsa in her journey to recovery over the last 2 years (Yorkhill Hospital, CLIC Sargent and Anthony Nolan to name a few).

The original team of 7 friends grew larger and larger until it became an army!! At present, Team Ailsa has 50 people walking the Glasgow Kiltwalk, whilst Ailsa's big sister Caitlin and over a dozen of her friends insisted that they too contribute to the fund raising efforts and set-up their own team (Team Ailsa's Bairns) to walk the wee Glasgow walk. So far they have raised over £1,500 in their own right - and they are not stopping there!

The majority of Team Ailsa is made up of friends and family from Dundonald. Their wee village and local community have really got behind the whole fundraising campaign, arranging endless events over the next few months, including Ailsa's Afternoon Tea, a psychic night, a race night and an interactive storytelling session for the kids.

Ailsa's Mum and Dad have also been totally amazed and eternally grateful to, what are, complete strangers who have signed up to represent Team Ailsa on the Glasgow Walk after being so inspired by Ailsa's story. Ailsa's mum Kirsteen says, 'The love and support that we have received from family and friends in Team Ailsa and from the whole village community in Dundonald and beyond, over the past 2 years, has been incredibly humbling and we are immensely grateful for it. From a two-woman band, we now have a fantastic number of friends raring to go to don their kilts and have a wonderful time whilst raising much-needed funds for our children's charities. Ailsa, with her ever present cheeky smile, would like to say a huge thank you and wish good luck to every single supporter. Happy walking!'

Team Ailsa have also received great support from corporate sponsors - including Barratt Homes and David Wilson Homes, the Hillhouse Quarry in Dundonald and Prosperity Financial Solutions. Their generosity has allowed them to fund their Team Ailsa uniform- chosen by Ailsa of course, the hiring of a coach to go from Dundonald to the start line at Glasgow and home again, and to pay for costs associated with some of the fundraising events.

This support and generosity makes a huge difference as it ensures all the money Team Ailsa raise, goes straight to the Kiltwalk charities and Anthony Nolan, their nominated charity for the Kiltwalk's 50% grant.

Training has been difficult to fit in as the team have been that busy organising and Lisa in now up to the 6 mile mark, or as she puts it "the first pitstop" :-)

It's been a bit trickier for Kirsteen. She has spent 2 months of training time in isolation with Ailsa in Yorkhill. But not to be defeated, a training plan was still put in place! She took her trusty treadmill up to the CLIC Sargent apartments and donned the pedometer and in one single day she reckons she can clock up 10km between pacing the corridors on the first floor of Yorkhill as well as climbing up and down the stairwell to level 7 and back again. It was getting to the point that the electric doors of the corridors would not open fast enough as Kirsteen pounded up and down, much to the amusement of the staff.

All of this effort, all of this fundraising is of course down to their unconditional love for Ailsa. Ailsa, like many of our other Kiltwalk Kids has has shown amazing bravery throughout her illness and is always smiling and full of beans no matter how hard her day.

She has endured so many invasive treatments that would render any adult bed bound! But not Ailsa as she is famous on the ward for bashing up and down the corridor on the toy tractor, despite only hours earlier being under anesthetic for an operation, or being unwell in intensive care after a central line infection.

The team are often asked how they motivate themselves to walk five marathons. However by simply hearing of Ailsa's journey, and seeing that beaming smile, then it's not hard to realise what motivates the team. In fact Ailsa's picture will not only motivate Team Ailsa, it will be motivating all of our Kiltwalkers as they cover the miles on Kiltwalk Day as Ailsa is one of our inspirational Kiltwalk Kids whose picture will spur us all on to the finish line.

Our Kiltwalk Kids are all the inspiration we need!

Team Ailsa hope to raise £10,000 for all the amazing charities that have supported the family, and many other children facing similar challenges. I wouldn't be surprised if they, like many of our teams absolutely smash it. So look out for them on Kiltwalk Day and say hello as I know this Aila's Ambler will :-)