By: Liz Galwey
On the coming June 20th thirty-two female and male cyclists will travel from their homes to Rome to raise funds for various cancer organisations all over Ireland.
The cyclists, drawn from various parts of the country will carry with them a scroll on which the late Donal Walsh’s message to young people will be written ‘Cherish their lives, it takes great courage to seek help than to suffer unbearably in silence” This scroll will be delivered to the Vatican.
Locals, Maurice Brosnan from Scartaglin and Tony Galwey from Currow will take part in the cycle for local hospices.
Maurice Brosnan hails from Scartaglin and works for Temmler Ireland in Kerry. Maurice will be one of the first cyclists to leave his home for Rome. This will be around Thursday morning June 19th and he will make his way to Rosslare and onto Rome arriving at the Vatican with the rest of the group on the July 5th. He will cycle 2,000km to Rome from his home and will raise much needed funds for the Castleisland branch of the Kerry Hospice Foundation
Currow man, Tony Galwey works as a Garda in Cork. Tony will leave his Cork home on Friday morning June 20th and he will make his way to Shandon Bells before cycling to Rosslare and onto Rome arriving at the Vatican on the July 5th. He too will be raising much needed funds for hospice with his Cork proceeds going to Arc House, Marymount Hospice and The Mercy Hospital Cork Cancer Services. But, being a Kerry man, he will be joining forces with Maurice and will be raising funds in Kerry also for the Castleisland branch of hospice.
Training is well under way for the 2200km / 16 day cycle which Maurice says will be “a challenging life-changing endurance cycle for both of us.” He added that both he and Tony are delighted to have the opportunity to raise money for local hospices and carry the late Donal Walsh’s message with them.
“When attending our events we will provide everyone with a wrist band with Donal’s ‘Live Life’ message so everyone can join in and help carry this powerful reminder. We will have an active online presence during the cycle so people can see our journey on facebook, YouTube, and twitter. We are over whelmed by the encouragement and support we are getting from people and look forward to seeing everyone at our charity fundraisers. We welcome any businesses that would like to sponsor us for our cycle”.
Maurice and Tony have a number of fundraising events planned over the next few months. A race night will take place in Castleisland Rugby Club on March 28th and a 5K has been organised for Castleisland for April 13th and a cycle has been organised in Killarney which will take place on May 10th. Watch this space.
