College boss helps to raise £160k in Grand Canyon trek

A SENIOR manager at Newbattle Abbey College in Dalkeith was among a team who raised £160,000 for good causes by trekking through the Grand Canyon.

Jackie Robertson and a team of more than 40 other trekkers spent six days in October hiking through the American landscape in aid of charity Marie Curie Cancer Care.

She said: “It was absolutely exhausting at times.

“Last year I spent three days trekking through Jordan for Marie Curie Cancer Care and that was tiring enough, but this was even tougher.”

The money raised by Jackie and the other hikers will now be shared between hospices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

The charity – which is one of the UK’s largest – provides end-of-life care for terminally ill patients either at their home or in a dedicated hospice.

It costs more than £41,000 per day to run the charity’s nine UK hospices and the organisation is heavily dependent on donations and fundraising work.