A brief chat between two friends turned into a charity fundraiser that helped raise more than £10,000 for the Special Care Baby Unit at Raigmore Hospital.
Nikki Bremner, from Nairn, had always wanted to give something back to the unit after her son Archie spent 17 days there following his birth four years ago.
After mentioning it to her friend Nicola Douglas, the pair decided to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania to raise money for the unit and the ARCHIE Foundation.
They embarked on a huge fundraising, including an event at Bogbain Farm that raised £6,000 as well as bake sales, charity collections in town and at football matches and the total soon hit £21,000, which has been split 50/50 for the two causes.
The friends climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in February this year after months of training which included a lot of walking and altitude training to prepare them for the challenge.
Ms Bremner said: “I’ve always wanted to do something for the unit as they were so good to us when Archie was born.
“I contracted meningitis when I was pregnant with Archie and was so ill it was agreed that he needed to be delivered four and a half weeks early.
“The staff in SCBU did such a great job of looking after all of us I’ve always wanted to do something to say thank you.”
Ms Bremner, who described the climb as “amazing”, visited the Special Care Baby Unit with her family this week to hand over the donation and to allow Archie and his six-year-old sister Olivia get a tour of the unit.
“It’s great to be able to donate this sum of money to SCBU and for Archie and Olivia to see the unit and the work that they do,” she said.
Mary Law, senior charge nurse for SCBU, said: “We are always so grateful for the donations we receive and it is always good to see how well our former patients are doing when they come to visit us.
“This is an amazing sum of money that Nikki has raised and we really can’t thank her enough. We will ensure it is put to good use.”
