A SCHOOLBOY who became an internet sensation for his amazing impressions of Alex Salmond has turned his hand to mimicking US President Donald Trump to help children in Malawi.

Ryan McGuigan, 15, has battled back from bowel disease, his parents’ divorce and the loss of his beloved grandfather to become one of the youngest, if not the youngest, stand-up comedians in Scotland.

His confident yet hilarious, impressions of the former First Minister, as well as Ed Miliband, David Cameron and Nigel Farage, attracted huge praise from comedians like Kevin Bridges and Rory Bremner.

Ryan is also heavily involved in fundraising and committees for Malawi projects at his school, St Margaret’s High in Airdrie, Lanarkshire, who have published moving diaries of their trips highlighting the work they do, and how it has helped the children in Malawi and affected them personally.

Staff, pupils and former pupils are now on tour with their 2016 diaries as they prepare for this year’s return trip on June 22 and they recently visited Galashiels Academy to speak to pupils at their assembly.

Their next stop is the tiny Hebridean island of Eigg on Monday, May 22, after locals invited them along to speak to the four pupils at the small school, and they are very excited to give a talk about their adventures in Malawi.

Third-year pupil Ryan said: “I started studying Donald Trump very closely, what he was saying and what he was doing, on TV in the run-up to the US election. Doing impressions of Donald Trump gets a lot of laughs and people really enjoy it as he is a larger-than-life character and there is plenty to go on.

“I will be taking my impressions to Eigg Primary and we will be telling the pupils over there about our last trip to Malawi and our diaries. I can’t wait to go to the island.

“When I did my impressions at Galashiels Academy, everyone absolutely loved it. I didn’t expect to get such a great response.”

Despite spending much of his early years in Glasgow’s Yorkhill children’s hospital receiving treatment for ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease, and helping to look after his younger brother Martin, 10, who is autistic, Ryan still finds time to rehearse his lines and keep up to date with politics.

His uncanny impression of Salmond earned him a trip to meet him at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery to witness the unveiling of his portrait in 2015, and since then he’s been gigging at comedy shows to raise money for the Aiming Higher in Malawi charity project which transforms the lives of disabled children.

Ryan has had the support of fellow pupils at St Margaret’s and his English teacher Andy McKay, who is also involved in the Malawi projects, with his impressions.

McKay said: “We are really excited about going to Eigg, there are only four weans in the school but we feel like rock stars because I’ve been getting text messages from people about us coming up.

“There will be over 20 of us going including Ryan and, for the warm-up, we’ll be getting him to do his Trump impression which is the best in the world, even better than he is himself, and he’s so funny. You really have to see him to believe him. Down in Galashiels he had everyone killing themselves with laughter. It went down a storm. He really is a very talented young man.”

As part of the North Lanarkshire Council Aiming Higher project, Ryan’s family sponsors four-year-old Yamikani Austin, who has a haematoma, and the money will help pay for treatment.

For the past few years, pupils at St Margaret’s have been producing diaries written from the heart while they were out in Malawi. The diaries, titled “Friendship, Family and Faith” are the accounts of the 2016 visit and pupils are now on tour with the book.