Nessie runners make a monster effort

IT might be an unusual memorial to a much-loved dad, but Colin McRae will be donning a 12ft-high Loch Ness Monster costume for the Bupa Great Winter Run, and thinks his late father Kenneth would have approved of the tribute.

After Kenneth, 67, died of cancer in 2002, Colin decided to find a fun way to raise funds for the charity Cancer Research UK. With friends Malcolm Jack and Robin Fallas, both 31, he created the enormous Nessie and took part in Newcastle's Great North Run.

Now the Edinburgh-based trio are embarking on a year-long quest to raise £25,000, entering Nessie in a total of nine races throughout 2009.

Mr McRae, 30, a charity development worker from Morningside, said: "I just wanted to do something in my dad's name. I think he would have thought we were mad, I think he'd like the fact that it's something different and quite unusual, and I think he'd be quite surprised, but delighted that we're doing it."

Mr Jack, a charity funding officer from Fountainbridge, said of the costume: "The reaction is fabulous, it's great fun because Nessie appears above the sea of other runners."