Charity fundraiser

My sisters and I along with our friend Méabh have decided to run our first marathon in Paris on the 2nd of April. While doing so we are also raising money for three charities that we hold close to our hearts, the Irish Cancer Society, Meath Palliative Care, and the Gary Kelly Centre.

Our mum was diagnosed with a brain tumour in October 2017 and sadly passed away two and a half years later in June 2020 after a very brave fight with cancer. Méabh’s grandfather passed away after a 10 year battle with cancer in September, 2021. It’s hard to describe what it’s like to lose a loved one but it’s impossible to describe losing your best friend.

Our mum passed away during the height of Covid. During a time when family and friends are so important, they weren’t able to be with us due to restrictions. As a family we are forever grateful to Meath Palliative Care for providing a huge amount of support in helping us to look after our mum in the comfort of our own home.

The Irish Cancer Society continues to do great work helping families dealing with cancer throughout Ireland every day. We chose to support this charity as a means of thanking them for the help they gave to us, particularly night nurse Hilary who enabled us to be with our mum the morning she lost her battle.

The Gary Kelly centre provides adult counselling services to patients, friends and family of those affected by cancer and were a great support to our family while mum was sick and also after she passed.

As mum grew more ill during covid, we were not able to see our family and friends and so running became an outlet to us, a form of escapism and a mechanism to deal with our emotions. It is a privilege to be able to run the Paris marathon together in memory of our mum and Méabh’s grandad while also raising funds for 3 amazing charities very close to our hearts. Any donations are greatly appreciated.

We are self-funding our trip so 100% of donations will be equally divided between these three charities.

Thank you in advance,

Aisling, Emma, Niamh and Méabh