SHE has cheered and whooped along the route, served up bacon butties at the end and provided celebratory hugs at the finish line.

But this year, Maggies' chief executive Laura Lee is swapping her spot on the sidelines for a seat in the saddle as she tackles her first ever Monster Bike and Hike.

The cancer charity, which has two Glasgow centres, has organised the event for 11 years, attracting 6000 participants and raising more than £5 million in the process.

Laura said: "I decided if I was going to do any of it, I should just do the whole thing.

"I'm reasonably confident about the hiking part as I do a bit of running, but I feel totally unprepared for the bike ride.

"My cycling consists of slowly riding about on a ladies' cycle, so how I'm going to cope with the inclines and harsh terrain of our beautiful Scottish landscape I have honestly no idea..."

Laura was a clinical nurse specialist at the Western General in Edinburgh where she gave chemotherapy to Maggie Keswick Jencks during her treatment for breast cancer.

Laura and Maggie shared a vision of a cancer support centre where anyone affected by any kind of cancer and their friends and families could access free help and support.

When Maggie died in 1995, Laura helped make Maggie's vision a reality and the charity opened its first centre in Edinburgh in 1996.

Thanks to Evening Times readers, who raised £1.2m, the first Glasgow centre opened at the Western Infirmary in October 2002 and a second followed at Gartnavel General in 2011.

Now Maggie's has 17 centres at major NHS cancer hospitals in the UK and abroad.