An Oban woman is preparing to cycle nearly 200 miles to raise funds for the British Red Cross.
Eszter Domina will take on the challenge next month as part of the charity’s Ride for Tomorrow event.
Any money she raises will help support people who are the worst affected by climate change.
Fighting climate change
Originally from Hungary, Ms Domina previously volunteered with the Hungarian Red Cross and witnessed firsthand the increasing number of extreme weather events.
“We are already facing the effects of the climate crisis,” she said. “At the moment I’m back in Hungary, and there hasn’t been much rain at all since around February. We have a big drought; everything is very dry.
“People in Europe are having real problems, and in lower-income countries it’s worse, because people were in a more difficult situation to begin with.”
Ms Domina has lived in Scotland for the past eight years and will soon start work on a peatland restoration project which aims to protect the country’s ancient peat bogs.
“These landscapes could be very important in dealing with climate change, because they store a huge amount of CO2,” she added.
Exploring Oban on wheels
The keen cyclist also believes her adopted home is the perfect place to explore on two wheels – another reason she signed up for Ride for Tomorrow.
“I originally came to Scotland just for the summer,” she said. “But I very quickly realised that I had to stay.”
“It’s a lovely place to live. The people are very friendly, the scenery is so nice. You can just get on your bike and go through forests, glens, some very remote and quiet places. It’s just stunning.”
She will be just one of many taking on the month-long cycling challenge in September, opting to complete a total of 198.2 miles as a nod to her birth year of 1982.
Participants can set their own target or complete one of the three set distances.
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