By Tim Saunders on
Last week, Look To The Stars brought you the story of 14-year-old Ryan McLaughlin’s Child Of The Year award, which he won for single-handedly trying to stamp out Mutiple Sclerosis in Scotland with his own charity, Shine On Scotland. We can now reveal that this remarkable boy is planning to climb Mt Kilimanjaro to raise awareness of his charity, and he is looking for celebrity supporters to help him.
Ryan – whose mother suffers from MS – set up the charity to raise awareness of the importance of Vitamin D in the battle against the condition. He organized a petition and march that was presented to Scottish parliament in June that attracted the support of over a thousand people, including Harry Potter creator JK Rowling.
“I am really honored to support Ryan in his fantastic campaign to get Vitamin D for all introduced as a preventative measure against MS,” said Rowling. “Ryan’s mother has MS, as did my own mother. I only wish I had the gumption at 14 to do what Ryan is doing and get such an important issue raised at parliament.”
Now – along with mountaineer Allan Thomas, who won Fundraiser of the Year at the BigHearted Scotland awards last week – Ryan is training to climb Africa’s biggest mountain, and he has asked Ultimo tycoon Michelle Mone and Celtic defender Gary Caldwell to join him.
“There will be blisters, sweat and tears – but I can do it,” said Ryan.
Ryan’s father, Alan McLaughlin, tells Look To The Stars that they hope to raise $100,000 with the climb – which is slated to take place in June/July of 2010 – with the money to be split between the Bighearted Scotland charities and MS research.
Anyone wishing to support Ryan in his endeavour can visit his website by clicking here.
Copyright © 2009 Look to the Stars
