A REGULAR resident at Leuchie House is preparing to take to the skies over East Lothian in a microlight to raise money for the charity.

And for Iain Donaldson-Elder, the challenge is all the more remarkable. . . as he suffers from multiple sclerosis (MS) and is wheelchair-bound.

The 56-year-old takes to the skies over East Lothian on May 24 to raise money for Leuchie, where he has been a regular resident since his MS diagnosis nine years ago.

Leuchie House, near North Berwick, provides caring respite breaks for people and their families living with long term conditions.

Iain told the Courier: “As a disabled person you start to lose your sense of identity and you start fading into the background, almost like becoming another piece of the furniture, but at Leuchie your sense of identity returns and you are almost spoilt.

“The treatment I get when I’m there, and it’s just to give my wife a break, is first-class.

“I could not ask for better treatment, so I thought about giving something back – if it wasn’t for the fundraising team at Leuchie you could easily triple or even quadruple the cost of respite care there so I wanted to give them a hand.”

Iain is no stranger to charity adventures – two decades ago, he took part in a skydive for Anthony Nolan, the charity that aims to save the lives of people with blood cancer.

He wanted to repeat the feat, but his condition has prevented him from doing so.

“I’d have done that again, but when you land you need to be able to bend your legs and I can’t do that any more, so that meant a sky dive was out of the question,” Iain said.

“So I thought ‘what’s the next best thing?’ and decided on a microlight flight.”

A former recruitment consultant, Iain grew up in Musselburgh but now lives in the Fife village of Crossford.

He hopes that the microlight flight from East Fortune will allow him to see the Honest Toun, adding: “I used to fly a lot when I was going down south on business.

“I remember seeing Musselburgh from the air in about 2000 and it had changed a lot from when I was a boy.

“It will have changed even more now, so I’m looking forward to being able to see that.

“When I moved, we lived in Kinghorn and that’s almost right across the water [from Musselburgh] so it would be good to be able to see there as well.”

Iain said he was “looking forward” to the flight, but added: “There is some trepidation about it but I’ve raised more than £1,500 so far so I’m not planning on backing out now.”

Kind-hearted Iain has more than tripled his initial target of £500 – with many donations coming through his Facebook page.

Tracy Lonie, Leuchie House’s events and community fundraiser, said: “We were thrilled when Iain told us he was going to take on this challenge for Leuchie.

“For most people, going on a microlight flight is a challenge in itself, but when you have MS it goes without saying that it becomes a significantly bigger undertaking.

“Iain knows how vital fundraising is to Leuchie because it enables us to subsidise the cost of every break by nearly 50 per cent, allowing people, like him, to have the respite breaks they desperately need.

“Al our guests and staff will be rooting for him!”

To add to his total, visit facebook.com/donate/409617309488160/1616880558347195.