A football daft Bankie is taking on a mammoth walking challenge to help raise awareness of the illness that has stalled his promising football career.

Brave Aaron Hussey, 17, will walk twenty-two kilometres between some of Glasgow and the west’s most iconic football grounds in aid of Colitis sufferers after being diagnosed with the condition at the start of May.

He will begin his challenge at Clydebank’s Holm Park, a ground he knows well after training with Yoker FC at one point and signing a first-team contract with the Bankies in season 2020/21.

And he will finish his journey at the home of his current club, Maryhill FC, a side he has already featured for one in the first team alongside his role in the under 20s squad.

Speaking to the Post, Aaron’s dad Alan outlined exactly why his son is pushing himself to walk the 13-and-a-half-mile route.

He said: “Part of the awareness is this condition, he’ll have to get to the toilet, there is no nicer way to put it.

“There is still a stigma that a lot of places like restaurants and fast-food places say – ‘paying customers only’.

“Which is not ideal for a young lad out with his pals, if he needs, he needs to go.

“He was telling me there is a girl in his college class that has Crohn’s and they didn’t let her in.

“She was out on a night out and this place wouldn’t let her in.

“These are hidden illnesses and its to raise that awareness.”

Back in February, Aaron began having chest pains whilst at work and originally thought it may be a chest infection.

And Aaron describes that one there, things started going from bad to worse.

He said: “I went down to my GP and from there I was rushed to hospital.

“It turned out I had blood clots in my lungs.”

He went on to spend the next 12 days in the hospital with the blood clots, an enlarged liver, a low blood count and was anaemic, requiring two iron infusions.

He was later discharged with his diagnosis still unknown, to be treated as an outpatient.

But then, at the beginning of May, with Aaron’s weight having dropped to just nine stone, blood tests and scans revealed he had Ulcerative Colitis, a type of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD).

And Alan admitted receiving the news was devastating to his ambitious young son.

“He’s totally gutted and he’s not going to accept it if he can’t get back to football,” Alan continued.

“Health to him is second, football is first, which is not ideal, but football is all he wants to do.

“He has always been a goalkeeper since a very young age, and he signed for Clydebank at 16.”

Now, for his walking challenge, Aaron and his dad will set off from Holm Park to reach Lochburn in Maryhill via Hampden, where the SFA have told them they can have full access to the facilities, joined goalkeepers from Clydebank and Maryhill alongside Scottish Heavyweight boxing champion Nick Campbell.

The Husseys will embark on their walk on June 11 and anyone who would like to kindly donate to them can do so at https://givepenny.com/aaronhussey_my_walk_it_2022.

All proceeds raised will be going to Crohn’s and Colitis https://crohnsandcolitis.org.uk/