Our Chris is coming home for Hawick to Jed charity challenge

Chris LaidlawChris Laidlaw
Chris Laidlaw
Charity race ace Chris Laidlaw is coming home to the Borders for the latest of his 12 marathons in 12 months crusade.

Race number seven has a very appropriate rugby flavour about it and it is taking place just two weeks after Chris completed the sixth leg of his 12-in-12-in 21 venture with a solo 32km run.

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Now past the halfway point, the latest stage is due to take place on Saturday, July 24, beginning at Hawick Rugby Club and finishing at Jed-Forest Rugby Club.

Chris, son of Jed-Forest, Scotland and British and Irish Lions star Roy Laidlaw, is tackling a 26-mile run each month this year to raise money for three charities – the Murrayfield Injured Players’ Foundation, Marie Curie and

Alzheimer Scotland.

He committed to that show of support for worthy causes close to his heart after the death in May last year of his mother Joy and the public announcement a few months later that dad Roy, 67, one of Scotland’s 1984 grand slam

winners, is fighting Alzheimer’s disease.

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Chris is an Edinburgh regional academy coach with Scottish Rugby and recently guided Scotland’s women to a top-five finish in the Rugby Europe Sevens Championship series.

His commitment to the two-legged tournament necessitated a slight change of plan for the charity venture but, after his last run, he tweeted: “We are closing in on £12,000, which is way beyond what I thought was possible at the outset of this challenge.

“This will make a huge difference to these three special charities.”