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Inspirational Mark heads west for charity

From Page 1 as Darragh Did is a charity setup by andrew McGinley in memory of his children conor, Darragh and carla who died in tragic circumstances in their family home in Dublin in January of 2020. andrew subsequently set up the charity which supports local community clubs, societies and projects with Dundalk club Bay Fc recently benefitting from the charity via sponsorship of all their U10 teams.

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according to Mark, the hard training has been done and he is ready to embark on what will be a gruelling trip of around 265kms.

“The plan is to set off on Tuesday afternoon from Howth with a team of six people including friends of mine from the Louth W.a.T.c.H (Walking and Tandem cycling for Health) club which is an activity club for Blind and Partially Sighted People. Paul callan from Fatima has been helping me train in the lead up to this and he will be accompanying us on the first couple of legs of the trip also.

“We will start in Howth at 12pm and travel along the canal to ashtown. From there we will head over to my parent’s house in Maynooth around 3pm. Then we will be travelling via Blanchardstown, clonsilla, confey, and the back of Intel. after a bit of a break we will head into Maynooth and over towards Kilcock and onto Enfield for 6pm. And that will be the first day done!

“Wednesday and Thursday will be tough as we will be clocking up 100kms on each day but Friday will consist of a short spin from just outside Galway out to Salthill. We’ve already had a fundraising event at the Marshes where we set up a stationary cycle and I was blown away by the amount of people who supported me. There were kids coming over and handing me fivers and tenners and we ended up raining over €2000. We also have an idonate page which has also raised just over €2000 so it’s been going really well,” stated Mark.

“I’ve always really enjoyed taking party in sports and being active and despite the accident a few years ago I made a conscious decision not to let my disabilities stop me doing what I love. I love a challenge and although I know it will be tough I’m looking forward to the trek,” he added.

Donations can be made to the as Daragh Did charity through Mark’s iDonate page which can be found by searching for Mark and Mary’s cycle fundraising page with all money raised going to the charity.

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