A YOUNG piper has completed a mammoth challenge, raising enough money to run Strathcarron Hospice for a full day.

Max Rae, a pupil at Dollar Academy, has raised more than £14,000 for the hospice, which needs to secure £12,900 every day to keep its services running.

As previously reported, the talented young musician originally started off with a 100-night piping challenge during lockdown.

At the time he lifted spirits by surprising people outside care homes and in gardens on birthdays, wedding anniversaries and other special occasions.

While that challenge was completed earlier in the summer, Max decided to keep going with the aim of reaching the nearly £13,000 goal for the hospice by the end of 2020.

He has been piping around his Bridge of Allan home and further afield, restrictions allowing, ever since – save for a period of time when he was recovering from a broken collarbone.

More recently, the humble young man was privileged to have been asked to film a short video for Strathcarron to welcome in the new year.

He teamed up with HND Media students from Forth Valley College to shoot the film at Stirling Castle on a cold and rainy afternoon with the final product appearing on Strathcarron Hospice's social media channels on New Year's Day.

Max's proud father John Rae said: "Max was thrilled and somewhat humbled to be asked to deliver this.

"The HND Media students from Forth Valley College were fantastic and have produced two absolutely great pieces of work.

"We were also delighted to have full use of Stirling Castle to film the video."

Thanks also go to Historic Environment Scotland for allowing filming to take place at the iconic landmark.

Max kept piping in the run up to Christmas and over the festive period in the final push to reach the £12,900 target.

John said: "The generosity of the local community has been absolutely amazing and actually quite humbling.

"It is from the heart, people are so generous - you get things said to you on the street when people are making donations, how the hospice looked after their mother or wife or other relatives.

"It's quite touching."

He added: "It's been a wonderful experience for Max to do this, it's nice to put something back into the community."

People can still visit Max's fundraising page at bit.ly/MaxthePiper to add to the total.

To view the young piper's New Year's Day video, people can find Strathcarron Hospice on Facebook.