A trio of Dunblane siblings have made a splash in a special effort to help Ukraine - and raised thousands of pounds in the process.
Eight-year-old Cammy Lockyer, his six-year-old brother Leo and four-year-old sister Aurora are all keen swimmers at the Hydro pool in the town and decided to do their bit for fundraising by completing a sponsored swim for the UNICEF appeal.
Cammy and Leo both swam 100 lengths of the pool - totalling more than a mile - while little Aurora swam 15 lengths in the challenge, which took place on Saturday.
Their efforts have seen them raise £1350 for the appeal so far, with parents and staff at Dunblane Primary - where Cammy and Leo attend - among those pitching in.
Mum Rona said they have been left taken aback by the generous response, with the fundraising total smashing through the initial target of £150.
She said: “I’ve actually spent a bit of time in Ukraine doing some election observation for work and I’ve also spent a summer in Odessa learning Russian with a friend of mine, so the kids had heard of Ukraine before and heard me talking about people there.
“They wanted to do something and feel as if they were contributing and while we helped with a donation ourselves, they love their swimming so that just seemed like an obvious thing to do.
“I don’t think they expected to make so much money and it’s still going up because people have been so amazing.
“I put it up initially on Facebook and a lot of people have got involved; I think a lot of people wanted to feel as if they were doing something and felt quite helpless but the kids feel as if they’ve achieved something.”
Rona admits the kids were left shattered by their exploits, but did end up putting in more laps than initially planned as the sibling rivalry kicked in.
“They are quite competitive and whatever Cammy does, Leo wants to do as well, they looked at doing one kilometre in the pool and then they changed it to a mile and they were supposed to do 90 lengths and ended up just going for 100”, Rona added.
“Leo in particular was just exhausted after it and actually did it with a broken finger, while Aurora was initially meant to do 10 lengths but ended going a bit longer as well.
“They were absolutely knackered after it and they slept well the next day but lots of people have been saying ‘well done’ to them and the teachers and everyone at the school has been really supportive.”
If you want to donate to the trio’s fundraising efforts, you can do so on their JustGiving fundraising page at justgiving.com/fundraising/rona-lockyer.
