An American teenager with a life-threatening illness this week visited the Angus castle that shares his surname.
Brandon Guthrie’s visit to Guthrie Castle has been three years in the planning, but as he gazed upon a roaring log fire in the impressive ancestral home and looked out from the battlements across acres of green lawn on Monday, he said it was well worth the wait.
The 16-year-old from Cleveland, Ohio, is on a two-week visit to Scotland with parents, Deena and Glenn, and 12-year-old sister Brooke. The trip was organised by the charity Make A Wish Foundation, which makes dreams come true for children and young people with serious illness.
Brandon and Brooke have cystic fibrosis, the life-threatening disease that causes problems in the respiratory and digestive systems, involving sufferers in a daily ritual of pills and physiotherapy.
Brandon wanted to see the castle that shares his name and applied to the Make A Wish Foundation, a charity he was introduced to through his hospital, to ask if they would grant his wish to visit the castle.
Not only did they grant Brandon’s wish but the charity paid for the whole family to fly from the States and organised a sight-seeing tour of Scotland that has included Edinburgh, Dundee, Glamis Castle, the Wallace Monument at Stirling and a spot of Nessie hunting.
The family have become fans of the Scots diet, dining out several nights on fish and chips and enjoying haggis and egg for breakfast but Glenn said he drew the line at black pudding.
“I tried it but no, not for me,” he said.
Glenn said he has Scottish roots, though he is not sure when his ancestors crossed the Atlantic and settled in America. He is sure he is the first of his American family to visit Scotland, thanks to his son’s application to the charity.
Brandon said he first stumbled over Guthrie Castle as an 11-year-old doing a school project.’Mythical'”After that it was always the place I wanted to visit,” he said. “It almost has a mythical sense to it and a lot of history behind it.
“As a little kid I always dreamed of seeing this side of Europe and especially Scotland. With the family connection to Guthrie Castle, I figured this would be the best place to experience it.
“I randomly came across Guthrie Castle when I did a school project in sixth grade of elementary school and I’ve wanted to come ever since.”
He put in his application to Make A Wish Foundation three years ago.
“My sister had already made a wish and gone to Hawaii,” he said. “They wanted me to do something a little different than most kids who ask to meet a celebrity or something like that. I wanted to visit the UK and make it a once-in-a-lifetime family trip.”
Mum Deena said, “It took about three years to arrange it all because it is such a major overseas trip.”
Glenn said, “They set us up with a fabulous itinerary.”
The fish fans, having heard about the famous Arbroath smokies, were keen to set off in search of that great gastronomic delight when they left Guthrie Castle.
Photo Jim Ratcliffe.