Motor Neurone Disease (MND) is a debilitating, rapidly progressing terminal illness which stops signals from the brain reaching the muscles.

There is a 1 in 300 risk of getting MND across a lifetime. It can affect adults of any age, but is more likely to affect people over 50.

In August 2020, at the age of 64 and having just retired, my big brother Richard was diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease. He died in March 2022. He was much loved by friends, family and former colleagues and leaves a big hole in all our lives.

He moved to Orkney from East Lothian in 1995 and made it his home, however he always extended a warm welcome to visitors from the "Sooth".

He loved the outdoors and was happiest when tramping the hills or clifftops with his faithful Labrador at his heels.

Tennis has always been a favourite pastime of mine so when I was thinking of how I might be able to raise some money for MND Scotland, it made sense to try and factor it in.

Richard wasn't really a tennis fan, but in recent years had really enjoyed a social game of "Touch Tennis" with friends at his local sports centre.

The challenge that I've set for myself is to play 40 tennis matches over 4 days at 40 different clubs between East Lothian and Orkney.

It will be best of 3 sets in accordance with Lawn Tennis Association's  "Fast4" format i.e. first to 4 games rather than 6.

I've had a fantastic response from the tennis clubs that I've approached. All the clubs have kindly agreed to give me court time plus a volunteer member to play.

My little campervan and I have a pretty tight schedule, starting in East Lothian at 8 am on Thursday 30th June and finishing 400 miles later in Orkney around 8pm on Sunday 3rd July.

I'm really hoping that my journey will also inspire a few members of the clubs along the way to contribute a few bob and help me to reach my fund-raising target.

Many thanks to everyone for your support.

Stuart