THREE volunteers are lacing up their walking boots to boost a Haddington initiative.

Thousands of people will take part in the Edinburgh Kiltwalk on Sunday to raise money for charities and good causes throughout the country.

Heather Bowsher and Mig Coupe are taking on the 11-mile Big Stroll, while Kim McPartland tackles the 20-mile Mighty Stride in aid of the Lammermuir Larder.

The initiative, which was set up in early 2021, was established to support individuals and families in the Haddington area who are struggling financially to feed themselves and/or their families.

Seventy-one-year-old Mig has regularly volunteered with the Church Street organisation for a couple of years.

She said: “The Lammermuir Larder is a community initiative and also advocacy service raising money and donations of food for the foodbank for people in need.

“The advocacy service is helping them make sure their benefits are maximised or finding out why they need to use the foodbank and ways to not use the foodbank.

“Many, many children in East Lothian are living in poverty.”

The Big Stroll will take walkers from Fisherrow Links to the home of Scottish rugby, Scottish Gas Murrayfield.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Stride will set off from Holyrood Park in the city centre before heading out to East Lothian and then along the coast through Portobello and finishing at the rugby stadium.

Mig told the Courier: “I think we had a meeting where we all got together, all the volunteers, trying to decide how we could help raise awareness but also raise funds for the Larder.

“Funds are always needed.

“We came up with a few fundraising ideas and came up with the Kiltwalk.

“I did it previously and was aware you could do three difference distances and different people got involved.”

Kiltwalk is Scotland’s largest mass participation walking event, with more than 172,000 people taking part since its relaunch in 2016.

The kind-hearted Kiltwalk community have taken big strides for charities close to their hearts, and together with The Hunter Foundation, have managed to raise £47.5 million for 3,660 Scottish charities.

Pat Lemmon, one of the founding members of the Lammermuir Larder, wished the volunteers well.

She said: “We are extremely proud of them - for them to actually do this walk on our behalf to raise much-needed funds to go towards the cost of food we have to buy.

“We are always extremely grateful for the donations we receive from members of the public but we still have to buy fresh produce daily for the people we are supporting.

“That money will go towards that.”

To make a donation, go to justgiving.com/crowdfunding/LammermuirLarder