This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Greencastle 5 Mile Road Run. An annual event in Greencastle, Co. Tyrone on St Stephen’s Day. The first run was organised back in 1986 by Oliver McCullagh for the MPS Society. This is a charity that I belong to that raises money for Mucopolysaccharides Diseases, of which I have Morquio.
As this is the 30th year, I wanted to mark the occasion and give thanks for the work they did 30 years ago. One of the charities that they are fund-raising for this year is the Northern Ireland Kidney Research Fund (NIKRF). In the Greencastle area, there has been 5 people who have received kidney transplants in the past 2 years, as well as 3 live donors. All recipients leading a full life again. 21 years ago there were only 6 transplants per year at the city hospital now there are over 100 per year. All down to research and funding for Renal education a lot of which is funded through NIKRF.
So thinking to myself, the battery in my wheelchair would never make it round the 5 mile mountainy roads in one piece and I wouldn’t be able to manually wheel myself around, I had to think outside the box. So I contacted Olympic and Commonwealth boxer Paddy Barnes and asked would he be up to the challenge to push me around the roads on ‘Boxing Day’. Immediately Paddy said yes, though queried if I would be too heavy… 😉
I want to publicly thank Paddy for being just a good sport, especially over the Christmas holidays.
Donations for this charity can be made at mydonate.bt.com. I thank you all in advance.