Racing for dementia

Euan's story

I went to my first motorsport event when I was only two weeks old, so racing has always been part of my life. My dad John was a Scottish Road Car Hillclimb champion so you could say that driving is in my blood.

I first got behind the wheel when I was 14 into a new class designed to encourage young drivers into the sport. Now, aged 16, I’ve just been named the youngest ever club champion for my local club Grampian Automobile Club. I’ve been involved with the club for many years as I used to go along with my dad to help out at events. It’s quite surreal.

My dad has competed in the hillclimb and sprint events for many years. Hillclimbs are where you drive uphill as fast as you can, and in sprints you drive round the track for several laps against the clock. It’s great that I’ve followed in his footsteps. Most weekends, me, dad and my mum Julia head to different venues across the country in our motorhome so that I can compete in the Scottish Hillclimb and Sprint championship.

I was nervous at first, but as soon as I started, I loved it. I’m doing pretty well at it and last year I was named Scottish Sprint champion.

Alongside my racing, I’m a young ambassador for Alzheimer Scotland. My gran Evelyn was diagnosed just over 10 years ago with Alzheimer’s disease when she was only 62, and then passed away aged 69, just three weeks from her 70th birthday. I was still quite young, but it had a big impact on the whole family.

I remember spending a lot of time with gran and how much she loved being with her family. Nothing ever seemed a bother for her. Mum told me how adventurous she used to be – taking her wetsuit and body board on holidays to St Ives and always packing her hiking boots.

I’ve fundraised for Alzheimer Scotland in the past and wanted to do more. So, for the past year I’ve used my driving events as an opportunity to raise money too – taking along collection buckets, and organising raffles and other small fundraisers.

I’m also keen to continue to raise awareness for the charity, so I’ve got their logo on my car and helmet as well as on banners, hoodies and t-shirts.

We had a great response and raised £1,400, which we’re really pleased about. We had quite a few people coming to speak to us, saying thank you and sharing their own experiences of dementia, so it’s been a great way to get people talking about it.

I’m looking forward to a new season of racing and getting a new car as I finally move out of the junior leagues and start to compete alongside experienced adult drivers. The car looks more like the ones you see on Formula 1, so it’s really exciting.

I would love motorsport to be my career, but it can be difficult getting spotted and getting sponsorship. I’m also looking at studying mechanical engineering and getting into the motorsports garages as a plan B.
No matter what I do, I still want to keep supporting Alzheimer Scotland and I hope gran would be proud.