Cumbernauld woman takes on charity challenge for Glasgow Children's Hospital

Rachael Stewart, who holds the current title of Royal Ms North Lanarkshire, is leaving her fate in the hands of strangers this year by asking them to choose monthly tasks for her to fulfil via social media.

These challenges range from cutting out sweet treats to tackling impressive physical feats like completing 100 squats each day.

In return, she asks that they consider donating to local charity, The Glasgow Children's Hospital.

Pictured: A long year lies ahead for Rachael

She said: "I thought that it would be nice to try and do something a little different.

"A lot of people will do a one-off challenge, but I really wanted to make this one worth it.

"So, I decided that I would let my Instagram followers decide on a new challenge for me every month this year.

"February was a vote between no coffee or no chocolate.

"I wasn't sure which one would be more devastating to be honest, but they've chosen no chocolate so I'm trying to prepare myself for that now.

"It's an interesting way of doing it, but I just want to raise as much money as possible for the Glasgow Children's Hospital."

Pictured: Rachael's efforts are in aid of the Glasgow Children's Hospital

Throughout their childhood, Rachael's brother spent a large amount of time in the Yorkhill Hospital which would later become the Glasgow Children's Hospital.

Having witnessed first-hand the incredible work done carried out by both doctors and staff, Rachael, 26, went on to volunteer for the charity casually for over seven years.

She said: "When my brother was in the hospital they had these people called 'clown doctors' who would come in to cheer the patients up.

"As I got older and started to get more involved in charity work, I found out that funding just one of these clown doctors costs £1000 a year.

"It's quite a lot of money which comes purely from public donations.

"Even a lot of their medical equipment or something as simple as new pyjamas will be funded by donations.

"I think it's a charity that sometimes gets overlooked, but it’s such a worthy cause.

“These kids are going through some of the hardest times of their lives so any little thing that we can do to make them feel a little better is great.”

Having come up with her own unique way to gather donations for the charity, Rachael is now feeling determined to face anything that the next 11 months might throw at her.

Pictured: For January Rachael has cut out sugar from her daily coffee

She said: “Sometimes I feel really excited by the idea of doing challenges and then other times I feel like it will be really difficult to be signed up for something like this for so long.

“Giving up chocolate will definitely be tough.

“One month I’m planning to do half a million steps too so I feel like that could be a difficult one too.

“I’m not sure what I’ll be doing for a lot of it because that depends on Instagram suggestions, but I want to be able to say no matter how insane it is I’ll take it on.”

To keep up with Rachael’s progress and vote for tasks, follow her on Instagram here.

For more information on The Glasgow Children’s Hospital click here.