L&UC Steps Up Challenge

The L&UC Steps Up Challenge is complete - our amazing team stepped the length of the entire Scottish coastline including the islands by the end of lockdown on the 17th of May - all 11,602 miles of it!

A sandy beach on Fair Isle, with a cliff face in the background

This was an excellent challenge that motivated so many of us to get screen-free time and improve our physical and mental health. It was great fun tracking our progress along the coastline and imaging ourselves in beautiful places far away from our work setups at home. You can find out more information on our fundraising page. We decided to support the Scottish Association for Mental Health as they have supported so many during the pandemic.

Our champion steppers were Caroline Milligan in first place, with an incredible 818.6 miles over the 18 weeks! Wowee! Second place, with a mammoth 781.77 miles was Fiona Wright who consistently detached from her screen and went walking - so inspiring! Finally, in 3rd place, with a super impressive 746.15 miles was Marshall Dozier! Mind-blowing totals. More notable super steppers are Alex Ross with over 700 miles, Gavin Willshaw and Angela Laurins with over 600 miles and Scott Renton, Kirsty Lingstadt, Dominic Tate and Carine Abraham with over 500 miles each. Nothing short of fantastic. Everyone in the team contributed to our incredible total – such a brilliant achievement. We’re all thrilled to have reach our insane target and hope to think of future challenges we can work towards as a team. It gave us something social to focus on despite being stuck at home.

The photo on the right shows the final point in our trip around the Scottish coastline on Fair Isle - we've been imagining ourselves celebrating together on this beach, covid restriction free!

Ianthe Sutherland, Digital Library Development & Systems Manager

This article was published on 5 Jun, 2021