Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
March 4, 2009
A RETIRED doctor is hoping to climb all 284 Munro mountains in just four months in a bid to raise money for a new memorial fund in honour of a city priest.
Dr Gerry McPartlin, 65, who worked out of Moira Park Surgery near Jock's Lodge for 21 years, hopes to tackle each of the Munros, stretching from the Firth of Clyde to the northern Highlands, starting in spring next year and finishing up by the end of the summer.
'Munro Bagging' involves climbing a combined total of 400,000 feet and walking more than 1000 miles, and typically takes over ten years.
Dr McPartlin, who has climbed each of the 3000 feet plus peaks in the past, was moved to undertake the challenge by the death of his friend and fellow climber, Monsignor David Gemmell, at the age of just 54 in March last year.
He said: "I first met David back in 1983 when my wife and I attended a group called Marriage Encounter, which helps couples discover more about each other and their relationship, and priests were often involved to give advice.
"The friendship grew from there and we started climbing the Munros together. David had already climbed many of them, as had I, but we decided to tackle the final few together along with a group of other people.
"David was the most amazing guy. He was very much a man of the people, very down to earth and quite unlike other priests. He was a great friend to our family.
"He once cycled from Edinburgh to Rome, and walked the full length of the Pyrenees, so he was very much an all-rounder and his death came as a terrible shock."
Mgr Gemmell, administrator at St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral since 1995, collapsed suddenly during a trip to Spain to watch Celtic play Barcelona in the Champions League.
Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic church in Scotland, will mark the first anniversary of his death at a special Mass in St Mary's Cathedral, Broughton Street, tomorrow.
The David Gemmell Living Memorial Fund will be officially launched after the mass to raise money for L'Arche homes, a disability charity that was very close to Mgr Gemmell's heart.
Dr McPartlin, who retired to Applecross in the north-west Highlands five years ago, added: "It was set up by a man called Jean Vanier, a French-Canadian and the son of a former governor general of Canada.
"David was very friendly with Jean and spent a lot of time at his retreat in northern France, and the idea of setting up a L'Arche appeal in David's name was very attractive to us because it is something that will make a difference in a way that a statue or a new church organ may not."
Cardinal O'Brien said that the L'Arche appeal was a "very fitting" memorial for Mgr Gemmell.
He added: "I am delighted that a lasting legacy will keep his memory alive with a project he would have approved and appreciated."
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