Campbell Roy says he will not get lost. Reading maps is his trade. The 71-year-old, a veteran of more than 150 rallies, set out on a 540-mile charity walk across Scotland that begins on a Saturday in Kirk Yetholm, just south of Kelso.
He was a co-driver and navigator for some of the biggest names in rallying, including the late Colin McRae and McRae’s father Jimmy. Roy is a former British and Scottish Rally champion co-driver.
A friendship on the rally stages
Four years ago, Roy struck up a friendship with Sir Chris Hoy, the Scottish cycling great who took up rally driving after he retired. Roy co-drove for Hoy at the McRae Rally Challenge in 2022 and again in 2025. By the second event, Hoy’s terminal cancer diagnosis was public.
“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,” Roy said. He also noted that Hoy’s wife Sarra had since been diagnosed with MS, and that Hoy’s wish to raise awareness and 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 route
Roy is walking the Scottish National Trail, which runs 540 miles from Kirk Yetholm to Cape Wrath in the far north-west. Outdoors writer and broadcaster Cameron McNeish devised it. The route is said to follow long-established footpaths through the Borders and across the Central Belt, then turns north into harder, boggier ground. It includes a 1,000m ascent in a single day before it reaches the exposed Cape Wrath Trail.
The first five stages are in the Borders, starting with Kirk Yetholm to Jedburgh. On Saturday 18 July he leaves West Linton for Balerno.
Roy has asked past and present motorsport crews, including well-known drivers, to join stages. “I am throwing it open to anyone who is interested to come and join me and keep me company,” he said.
Why he is doing it
“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,” Roy said. Hoy has been a “brilliant support”, he added, as has Prostate Cancer Research.
He gave figures for Scotland: one in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and one in three of those diagnosed is already at the metastatic stage. That means the cancer has spread and no cure is currently available.
“The PSA test does not always pick it up so we’re pushing for more screening,” Roy said. “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.”
Sources
- Rally champion to walk 540 miles to raise awareness of prostate cancer
- Rally champion to walk 540 miles to raise awareness of prostate cancer
Sources
- Rally champion to walk 540 miles to raise awareness of prostate…
- Rally champion to walk 540 miles to raise awareness of prostate…
