Runners raise over €13,000 for Kinnitty woman
‘On the route we lost our way, and were hit by dehydration.’
THREE intrepid and ultra-fit Offaly men ran a 200 kilometre marathon at the beginning of September and raised €13,500 in the process, for a Kinnitty woman’s vital surgery.
Abi Markey, daughter of Sarah Finane was born with a rare genetic condition which has caused her serious teeth and jaw problems throughout her life, which have required expensive surgery and will require more expensive surgery in the future. John Bulfin (70), Ray Flanagan (63) and George Webb (67) decided to undertake the 200km Kerry Way Ultra, a gruelling long distance run which must be completed in less than 40 hours, on September 4 and 5 last, to raise money for Abi’s surgery.
"This was a most memorable Kerry Way Ultra for Ray, George and myself,” John told the Midland Tribune a couple of days after the run. “All of us gave 100% in training and in the race for Abi's much needed remedial surgery in Germany. A target of 15,000 Euro was set for this particular campaign which is all part of a greater campaign to raise about 91,000 Euro.
“We approached the manager of Super Value Birr, Rory Cronin who gave permission for a bag pack which we managed to do on 22 August which brought in €1074.76.
“Now an extraordinary women Eileen Daly and her amazing team stepped in. Sarah contacted Eileen, who is the chief organiser and founder of the now famous Kerry Way Ultra run to let her know about George, Ray and myself and our desire to run the 200km for Abi. Eileen from the moment she knew supported Sarah, Abi’s Mum, every step of the way including on her own personal facebook page.
“By the way Eileen and her team are very much supporters of many charities and other runners were out there raising awareness of Motor Neurons Disease etc.
“Sarah went to Kerry and put up posters of the event in all the shops displaying a picture of George, Ray and myself with our age total of 200 years. Support doubled as the generous people of Kerry, and elsewhere, plus the participants got behind the campaign before, during and after the run.
“Sarah came to Kerry to help us and others on our run. She and her beautiful daughter Mary Rose were at every stop from Glenbeigh on, waiting to do for us whatever they could even through all the night stops. Happily, the weather was favourable and we set out at a reasonable pace together at 6 am Friday morning the 4th of September.
“We were aiming to finish rather than run a personal best! On the route we lost our way, and were hit by dehydration.
“Amazingly we had managed to stick together during the run until around the Templenoe stop. That's when everything started to go wrong. First we lost our way, then dehydration began to hit and the medics were on our case and when we finally reached Templenoe we had lost so much time that getting to Kenmare seemed impossible based on our previous runs for that section. However we felt we owed it to Abi and Sarah to give it our best effort. Our energy tanks were on empty but we managed to make it back to Killarney before the 40 hour cut off at 10 pm Saturday 5th September.
“After a hot shower, complements of Killarney Golf Club we settled down to a pint of Guinness and to watch Katie Taylor do Ireland proud in her last fight.
“To be perfectly honest,we would rather do 10 Kerry Way Ultra marathons than have the task of raising 91,000 Euro. The real Ultra Marathoners in this story are Sarah and Abi. Abi has been suffering Amelogenisis Imperfecta from birth, a rare disease which has caused her constant pain for the last 21 years. With Abi’s jaw in danger of collapsing altogether her mother Sarah bravely set out at the beginning of this year to raise the massive amount of money required for remedial surgery in Germany. It has been a great privilege and an incredibaly enriching experience for George, Ray and myself to be part of their story. Now please get behind them as they continue to fundraise and to push for the finish line.”