AN Irish man who has run over 250 marathons in a bid to raise much-needed funds for cystic fibrosis is running from Limerick to Killarney this Thursday.
Gerard Fay from Bettystown in County Meath will mark the beginning of this week’s Cystic Fibrosis Ireland Conference in Killarney by undertaking this grueling 115km feat.
The 46-year-old will depart from the newly-opened CF unit at the University Hospital Limerick at 8pm on Thursday and run non-stop to Killarney, reaching his final destination some 22-hours later.
Gerard, who has raised over €125,000 in the past decade to improve services for people with CF in Ireland, will then will then run 65km on the treadmill at the conference this Saturday to raise awareness for 65 Roses Day, the national fundraising day for CF.
He will then wind up his weekend’s astonishing challenge by travelling overnight to Roscommon to run a marathon on Sunday.
Gerard became devoted to raising awareness of CF after he lost three cousins to the disease. In 2005 he walked from Dublin to Cavan to raise awareness of CF. Following several long distance walks, he started running and has since completed 281 marathons, 78 of which were in the past year alone.
CF patient Carol Brady, who attends the Limerick unit will begin the run with Gerard this Thursday. UL’s Derek Mackessy will run with him to Killarney and Pat Mockett and his daughter Katie Sheehan, herself a mother of a child with CF, will provide 24-hour support.
According to Ger, it is important that he begins this run in Limerick in order to honour the new CF unit that has been built by TLC4CF through local fundraising and charitable donations.
“I have many friends with CF who are patients of the University Hospital Limerick and they describe the new facilities there as life changing”, he said.
by Alan Jacques
