A BRAVE Cardross schoolboy has inspired classmates, staff members and friends of his school to clock up more than 10,000 miles for charity – in the space of just a fortnight.

Mackenzie Cameron, 11, has a rare genetic condition which makes him vulnerable to infection – and spent eight weeks in hospital at the beginning of this year after contracting Covid-19.

Although he managed to beat the disease – despite suffering four respiratory arrests and two cardiac arrests during his lengthy stay at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow – one of the side-effects was that Mackenzie had to learn to walk again.

But he’s been out and about doing just that every day, and throughout the two weeks of the Easter break it was Mackenzie and his family who led the way in raising cash for Samuel’s Smile and the John O’Byrne Foundation.

Between them, Mackenzie, his family and his classmates, teachers, staff and friends clocked up a remarkable 23,151,198 steps on their #Walk4Mackenzie during the two weeks of the Easter school holiday – the equivalent of 10,323 miles or 16,611 kilometres – raising more than £2,500.

The original plan had been to walk the equivalent of the distance from Colgrain Primary School in Helensburgh, where Mackenzie is a pupil, to Disneyland Paris and back.

But having managed that in the first week, the target was then revised – to walk from Colgrain to Walt Disney World in Florida and back.

And they smashed that target, too.

Head teacher Pauline Walsh said: “At first we were hoping for three million steps, so we’re amazed at what we’ve achieved.

“Mackenzie has been an inspiration to everyone. To go through what he’s gone through and to still be out there trying his best is incredible.”