My good friend Jimmy Anderson passed away in St Vincent's Hospice on Friday 13 June 2014.

The year before that, St Vincent's Hospice looked after Laura from the Brown Bull's mum, the lovely Elaine Hunt, before she passed away. My father-in-law Tom Reid was also cared for by SVH in 1998.

One sunny afternoon shortly before he died, I visited Jimmy and his wife Eileen in the Hospice. Jimmy was in a nice big private room which had a lovely view out to the open countryside. I remember he said to me "I don't know where they get the money to run this place".

Well, I know now. It costs £5,000 per day to run the hospice and community services, over 50% of which comes from  voluntary donations - so please help us to help them to continue to provide their wonderful works.

What is the Arran Challenge? Basically we have to cross the sh*** infested waters from Ardrossan to Arran; cycle the 60 miles right round the island, and then climb the highest mountain, Goat Fell, before swimming home for tea.

That is all true, apart from the swimming bit, and actually we do it over 2-days, but please sponsor us anyway. I should also say that we have covered all our costs for the weekend privately with the Hospice, so 100% of all donations go straight to the charity.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.