Lorraine Kelly is to welcome a group of fundraising friends to Tannadice, home of her beloved Dundee United, in memory of a young man who lost his battle with cancer.
John Maurice Aitken fought lymphoma three times in his life before he passed away from the illness last summer aged just 32.
Now a group of his close friends and family are to tour Scotland’s football grounds 42 in 42 hours to raise money in his memory.
John had been involved in organising several charity events so his brothers Kevin and Ciaran and friends Gary McMenamin, Gordon Moffat and Joe Cranston, wanted to continue his work through the JMA Trust.
TV personality Lorraine will take the group on to the pitch at Tannadice.
She said: “I was asked by the charity to help them and I am delighted to do so.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the fundraisers when they come to Tannadice and very honoured to have been asked to help them raise awareness and funds.
“It’s a brilliant cause and John was clearly a very special man. It’s a very appropriate way to raise funds in his name as he was such a big football fan.”
Lorraine took to Twitter to promote the challenge to her 519,000 followers.
She wrote: “Five friends, one car, 900miles, 42 football grounds in 42hrs 16/04/15. All #ForJohn.”
Team member Gordon said: “I really wanted to come up with something that I know would have excited John, something that I could envisage him throwing himself into and that is when football became the obvious choice.
“Everyone knew of John’s dedication to his beloved Celtic and Annan but his love of football also went much deeper than that and I felt it would be a fitting subject to base my challenge on.”
John was first diagnosed aged 23, while studying at Glasgow University. After treatment, he completed his studies and graduated with a first class honours degree. When John was diagnosed with a relapse in 2012 he went through a stem cell transplant but the cancer came back and finally killed him.
The team will travel around the country visiting stadiums tomorrow and on Friday.
Anyone who would like to donate to their cause can do so at mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/42in42.