Edinburgh Tattoo: Royal Marine band will walk 26km after show in honour of colleague

Sophie Ward was just 26 when she was diagnosed with MND in January and bandmates have launched a major fundraising effort called “26forSoph” which sees them undertaking a whole variety of challenges around the theme of 26.

Members of the Royal Marine band will walk 26km back to base after two performances at the Tattoo on Saturday. Picture: Neil Johnstone. | TSPL

Edinburgh-born bandmate Amy Phillips is walking 26,000 steps every day for 26 days and has received a £500 donation from the residents of the Tower of London. She walks in different places each day - including on holiday in the French Alps - and has roped in celebrities and friends to join her.

Another friend is climbing 26 peaks in the Lake District, others are running 26 miles or swimming a kilometre a day for 26 days.

On Saturday, about 30 members of the band of HM Royal Marines Scotland will walk back from the Tattoo to HMS Caledonia where the band is based - a distance of 26 kilometres.

Lance corporal Catherine Edington, one of Sophie’s friends and one of the fundraising organisers, said: “They’re going to perform on the Castle esplanade for two shows and then get out of their uniform and walk through the night for six and a half or seven hours back to base in Sophie’s honour.”

Sophie Ward and her husband Rich, who also serves in the Marines | supplied

The overall target for the fundraising campaign in £26,000. Seventy per cent of the money raised will go to the Royal Marine charity has been providing financial and personal support to Sophie and her family, including funding a lift to be installed at her home.

The rest of the money will be split equally between Dorothy House hospice, which provides respite care and at-home nursing care, and the MND Association.

Sophie joined the Royal Marines Band Service in 2020 and served as a flute and saxophone player. She met her husband, Rich, in training and they married in April 2023. But after some health concerns and lengthy investigations, she was diagnosed with MND in January and friends say her condition has deteriorated at ”shocking” speed

The fundraising campaign has a JustGiving page, where donations can be made.. .