Butcher Boys celebrate a century with mountain ascent

Alistair (left) and Jim (right) got some training tips from Scottish rugby legend ChrisPaterson at this year's Royal Highland Show.

Two meat industry stalwarts are marking a century of service with a charity ascent of Britain’s biggest peak.

Jim Royan and Alistair Donaldson, who have served the Scottish meat industry for a combined total of 100 years, are this week tackling the 4,409ft Ben Nevis in a charity climb in aid of RSABI, the Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution, and Farms for City Children.

Jim Royan is the proprietor of Scotland's oldest family butcher's shop, which has been family run for more than 150 years. He started doing bike deliveries in his school days and was the youngest President of the Scottish Federation of Meat Traders Associations in the early '70s. He was an MLC Commissioner for 17 years and most recently a QMS Board member for three years.

Alistair Donaldson has been involved in the industry for 53 years including 30 with MLC, two as Technical Director of QMS, six years as Executive Manager of SAMW, then three years as a QMS board member.

Alistair said: “We are doing this as a meaningful (and fun) way of accomplishing a combined 100 years of involvement in the Scottish red meat industry during which time we have worked together on a variety of initiatives as well as a recent three year term as board members of QMS.

“Neither of us has done this climb before and we are only very occasional hill walkers. This will be the highest so far although having climbed Scone Pinnacle probably more than a thousand times over 15 years that must prepare me a bit.

“The support team will consist of my son Andrew and grandsons Angus (10) and Neil (8). They will be the pace setters and we would expect to be up and down in around six hours.”

To donate to the good causes and help the team up the mountain you can visit: http://www.rsabi.org.uk/2391