Beltex sheep breeders gifted just short of £5000 for two extremely worthy charities when a choice ewe lamb from the Barclay family's Beachy flock from Maybole was auctioned.

The money was raised following 10-year-old Jack Murdoch's admission to Queen Elizabeth Glasgow Children's hospital last summer, where he was diagnosed with Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, a rare type of fast-growing non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. After initially spending some 40 long nights in the Schiehallion Ward in Glasgow Children’s Hospital, Jack is now home with his parents, Alistair and Lorraine Murdoch and sister Cara, and attending as an outpatient where his road to recovery will continue for the next three years.

So impressed by the care and attention Jack received in hospital and continues to receive, Lorraine's parents and brother, John or Beachy Barclay, his wife Heather and family, Mid Brockloch, Maybole, sought to raise money for the amazing charities that helped and continue to assist others, by donating their best ewe lamb to be born this year.

This choice lamb was auctioned at the Beltex AGM weekend in October where the successful bidders Andrew and Hilary Morton, Lochend Farm, Denny, bought the lamb for £3860 with the second last bidders, Andrew and Claire Wood, Withy Trees Farm, Preston, kindly gifting a further £1000 to give a grand total of £4860.

The money is being split with half donated to Glasgow Children's Hospital Charity's Schiehallion Appeal, in partnership with NHSGGC which helps to enhance the clinical trials centre on the Schiehallion Ward in order to bring more of the latest cancer treatments to children in Scotland. Clinical trials give children access to new types of treatment when conventional treatments have failed. Having access to these potentially life-saving treatments in Glasgow prevents children from having to travel further afield, which can cause further distress to both them and their families. The other half was donated to Glasgow Children’s Hospital Schiehallion Play Fund – "The play team... they saved our sanity." This charity staffed by volunteers provides simple arts and crafts for children in hospital which in turn helps to ease the pain and improve the healing process of individual children and parents at such a difficult time.

The Schiehallion Ward is named after a mountain in Perthshire to mirror the journey for children with cancer. The name recognises that battling this devastating condition is an uphill struggle, but also that you can walk up a path with lots of people who will help get you to the top.

It is also Jack's moto which was given to him by one of his nurses – “The one who falls and gets up is much stronger then the one who never fell."