{"id":286959,"date":"2025-07-24T04:04:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286959\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T04:04:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T04:04:16","slug":"beattie-gets-on-his-bike-for-scotland-wide-samaritans-fundraiser","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/286959\/","title":{"rendered":"Beattie gets on his bike for Scotland-wide Samaritans fundraiser"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>NEIL Beattie\u2019s fundraising cycle around Scotland has been a long time coming \u2013 around 16 years, to be exact.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>He set off this afternoon (Wednesday) on a long-held quest to cycle around all 19 branches of the Samaritans in Scotland, with <a href=\"https:\/\/samaritanscommunity.enthuse.com\/pf\/neil-beattie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">more than \u00a31,000 raised for the charity already<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Beattie \u2013 who works in the council as a catering team leader \u2013 said his mum was the chairperson of the Samaritans in Scotland, and had often raised the idea of a bike ride for the charity.<\/p>\n<p>Fittingly he pedalled off from the Lerwick branch of Samaritans near to the town hall, with a short trip to the NorthLink ferry terminal to begin with.<\/p>\n<p>Beattie, who said he has had the idea for more than 15 years, will then cycle to Samaritans branches all around Scotland \u2013 Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Falkirk, Edinburgh, Selkirk, Dumfries, Hamilton, Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Greenock, Stornoway, Elgin, Inverness, Thurso and Orkney.<\/p>\n<p>He reckons the trip will cover more than 1,200 miles and could take around a fortnight of cycling.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking the day before he set off, the Burra-based Beattie said some of his preparations have included cycling to and from work in Lerwick.<\/p>\n<p>He quipped that he is \u201cready for the pain\u201d of cycling for two weeks, but said when it is for charity \u201cit gives you that extra bit of motivation to keep going and push through\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The fundraiser said given there is no race element to the challenge he will not be rushed getting around the branches \u2013 and he hopes he might get a \u201ccup of tea and a sandwich\u201d during his visits before setting off again.<\/p>\n<p>Beattie conceded one of his biggest pre-trip nerves is getting off the ferry on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Normally he would get off the ferry and turn left to go south but he will have to get on his bike, \u201cturn right and go straight up to Union Street up that big hill, so it\u2019s not a great start \u2013 but I\u2019m sure it will be fine\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile the Samaritans offers free emotional support to anyone who may be struggling, giving folk a safe space for people to talk without judgement or pressure.<\/p>\n<p>The charity can be contacted on 116 123 free of charge.<\/p>\n<p>People can donate to Beattie\u2019s online fundraising page <a href=\"https:\/\/samaritanscommunity.enthuse.com\/pf\/neil-beattie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Shetland News<\/strong> is asking its readers to consider paying for membership to get additional perks:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Removal of third-party ads;<\/li>\n<li>Bookmark posts to read later;<\/li>\n<li>Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;<\/li>\n<li>Hide membership messages;<\/li>\n<li>Comments open for discussion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of <strong>Shetland News<\/strong> by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.<\/p>\n<p class=\"row-text sign-in-message\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/account.shetnews.co.uk\/?redirect_to=https:\/\/www.shetnews.co.uk\/2025\/07\/23\/beattie-gets-bike-scotland-wide\/\" title=\"Sign in\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Sign in<\/strong><\/a> to hide this message.<\/p>\n<p>\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/payments_horizontal_2.png\" alt=\"Payment methods accepted\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEIL Beattie\u2019s fundraising cycle around Scotland has been a long time coming \u2013 around 16 years, to be&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,12450,5554,3390,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-286959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-charity","10":"tag-community","11":"tag-fundraising","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114906232469878954","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}