Remembering Donna

By Craig Lowrie

I was so proud when my son Robbie was chosen to be the Braw Lad at the Galashiels Common Riding in 2019. But two weeks before it took place, our family was devastated when my sister Donna died in a car accident. I felt I needed to be the strong one for the family, as I was the dad, the husband, the son, the brother, the uncle, the brother-in-law. I thought if my family thought I was OK, it would help them.

People would ask how I was feeling and I’d just smile and say I was good. Robbie went to all the common ridings around the Borders despite our loss, and following him kept our family busy and got us through the summer. Donna would’ve loved following him round the border towns as he represented his town.

At that stage, I’d been running with the Galavanters for a while – the group’s great fun, with great people, it always gave me company and different sessions, and jog leader Arlene Botha was very encouraging. But after Donna died, I found I couldn’t go running on my own as I’d break down crying, and soon I stopped all together. Eventually, Raymond Hume from the Galavanters got in touch and asked me back along. I was a bit wary at first as I had lost the bug, and didn’t know if I’d break down at the session. But they got me running again. Even through lockdown Arlene would post weekly sessions on Facebook and most members would do them and post results. This motivated me to go out and do something. I did suffer from depression - and probably still do – but I now use running to clear my mind. I was always planning to do something in my sister’s memory, but I wasn’t sure what.

Then, when covid arrived, all the common ridings got cancelled. As lockdown started to ease in the summer, I let Robbie know my idea of running a 10K in each town he rode last year to raise money for a charity. We posted on Facebook for ideas.

I noticed some common ridings were raising funds as they still had expenses, even though there were no festivals. We thought it was perfect and decided we’d split the money raised between all towns. We let the people that were donating decide which town they’d like to donate to, so they knew it was going back to their town. If they weren’t into common ridings they could donate to ward 15 at the Borders General Hospital, as my youngest daughter Jorja had received several blood transfusions there when she was younger.

Only 10 days after we put the plan in place was the date of Hawick Common Riding, so I did that on my own. But as the word spread and more people got interested, the support was unbelievable and I started to gather running buddies.

I’m so grateful to everyone who came forward to run with me - past and present principals, committee members, all got behind the idea, and some even presented me with keepsakes like pin badges and festival ties. Having running buddies certainly made it easier.

The toughest day both physically and emotionally was Kelso in the morning and Innerleithen in the afternoon, and finishing the games week run to the sounds of the pipes outside my sister’s house.

There were lots of highlights - running up the toll in Selkirk was great, and crossing the Tweed in Peebles. The best had to be running the Gala day route something I’ve always wanted to do is ride the Gala day and I guess this is as close as I get unless I overcome my fear of horses!

My mum and dad have been great, they’ve made it to every run and my daughter Katie has been brilliant support travelling to each run with me.

When we first came up with the idea, we thought we could raise roughly £100 for each town but we’ve raised almost £8000 in total. Not just the general public, but local businesses have donated as well. Borders.co.uk bought me new trainers and supplied running T-shirts, R&L taxis also offered to replace my worn out trainers. Tesco Galashiels raised £450 and donated Haribos, blister packs and water, the filling station in Selkirk also donated 100 bottles of water.

I had no idea how big it was going to get. What was meant to be a 10k road run turned into running the festival routes as much as possible without entering fields. I didn’t actually realise I was giving people an alternative festival day and the crowds that came out were unbelievable and all adhering to government guidelines which was brilliant. I got to see a lot of towns’ historical viewpoints, which I never normally see.

I was nominated for a Pride of Britain award and made the final four in the Fundraiser of the Year category, and was also awarded the Community Champion award by the Galashiels and District Rotary Club.

Hopefully I’ve made my wee sister proud and also gave people something good to remember from the 2020 festival season. I’ve been totally blown away how much it brought everyone together in such strange times – I thought I was just running.