Seven former Peterhead players are amongst a 25 strong squad who will run over a 24 hour period from noon on Saturday to show their support for one-time Blue Toon striker Martin Johnston who has been diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND).
Ex-Balmoor player Keith Robertson has organised the event which will see former Scotland player and Peterhead manager Ian Wilson as well as assistant boss Alan Lyons and fellow former Blue Tooners Craig Cooper, Mark Perry, Stuart Soane and Kevin Tindall get their trainers on for an allocated slot over the 24 hours.
The remaining players, including a clutch from Fraserburgh all either played with or against Johnston who also featured for Cove Rangers, Elgin and Brechin City,
The runners are spread across Scotland with Leighton Flaws running in Shetland and Tindall as well as Cooper stretching their legs in Angus with the funds raised going to Doddie Weir’s ‘My Name’5 Doddie’ foundation which is raising awareness and funding for research into MND.
Goal-grabber Johnston who is now 42 is delighted that his footballing friends are helping with Robertson saying: “Once we came up with this idea with Martin, we set up a group chat with all the runners. The banter in it has been tremendous and when you consider some of us have not seen each other for 10 years it is remarkable how quickly we have bonded.”
“In fact, we could have given out the slots three times over as there are so many ex-players keen to help in the fund-raising.”
An initial target of £5,000 has been reached already with Robertson adding: “The people at Cove Rangers donated a £1,000 last week and that was an incredible gesture. We will just look to keep adding to that amount over the weekend and it would be great if we could now hit five figures.”
“If anyone from Peterhead would like to support our fund-raising details of the Just Giving Page are noted above.”
The full list of runners is –
Micheal ‘Mo’ Morrison
Kevin Tindal
Alan ‘Lenny’ Lyons
Ian Wilson
Craig Cooper
Russell McBride
Ryan ‘Boomer’ Christie
Derek Milne
Steven Sim
James ‘Champer’ Milne
Stuart Soane
Scotty Moore
Graeme ‘Grapies’ Grant
Andy Reid
Adrian ‘Edser’ Thomson
Daniel Park
Leighton ‘Pony’ Flaws
Andy McCraw
Micheal Beattie
Neil ‘Toastie’ McRitchie
Mark ‘Fred’ Perry
Connor Scully
Steve ‘Dippy’ Dolan
Donny Adam
Keith Robertson
