Rally champ to trek 540 miles for friend Chris Hoy's cancer cause

Campbell Roy's ability to read maps is extremely well developed, so he is confident that he will not get lost when he sets out in the Borders this weekend on a 540-mile charity trek.

The former British and Scottish Rally champion co-driver, and veteran of more than 150 rallies, was a navigator for some of the biggest names in rallying, including the late Colin McRae and his dad Jimmy.

Four years ago Roy struck up a friendship with another Scottish sporting legend, Sir Chris Hoy, who had taken up rally driving after he retired from his illustrious cycling career.

Roy was Hoy's co-driver for the McRae Rally Challenge in 2022 and again in 2025 by which time the Olympic medalist's terminal cancer diagnosis had been made public.

That was when Roy decided to do something to raise awareness of prostate cancer and money for research.

Roy said: "I was very privileged to be asked to co-drive for Sir Chris, but it just really hit me that in between the two events, Chris was sadly diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer, and yet he turned up so positive, interested in me and how my family was doing.

"And I remember thinking 'hold on, he's going through all this', and his wife Sarra had been diagnosed with MS by then too, and his desire to raise awareness of prostate cancer and raise money for research was so absolute.

"I just came away thinking, I must do something to help. I can't sit on my backside. I don't ride a bike, but I do a lot of walking so we came up with this challenge."

The challenge that the 71-year-old is taking on is the Scottish National Trail, 540 miles from Kirk Yetholm just south of Kelso to Cape Wrath, in the far north-west of Scotland.

It was devised by the outdoors writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish and is said to follow some long-established footpaths as it heads through the Borders and across the Central Belt of Scotland, before heading north into more difficult, boggy terrain and up a 1,000m ascent in one day, before finally meeting the exposed Cape Wrath Trail.

Roy has engaged past and present motorsport crews, including famous drivers and supporters, to bring the sporting world together in this effort, and many will be walking stages with him.

"I am throwing it open to anyone who is interested to come and join me and keep me company," he said.

"Chris [Hoy] has been a brilliant support, as have Prostate Cancer Research and many other organisations, and it will be great to have some familiar faces coming along.

"But the big reason I'm doing it is to raise awareness of the need for men to get checked for prostate cancer, and to raise as much money as we can to prevent more men receiving terminal diagnoses, as Chris has."

He said: "In Scotland, one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and one in three diagnosed is already at the metastatic stage, meaning the cancer has already spread to other parts of the body and no cure is currently available.

"The PSA test does not always pick it up so we're pushing for more screening, and if we can help raise awareness of that and funding for more research, or just persuade men out there to go and get checked, then we'll have done some good."

The walk starts on Saturday in Kirk Yetholm and heads to Jedburgh, with the first five stages in the Borders, before he departs from West Linton to Balerno on Saturday 18 July.

Full details of the walk can be found here. :