A marathon at 3:00am in the middle of December is not a task for the faint-hearted, yet, a group of Kerry farmers managed to do it last night – while pushing a milk trolley.
The Killarney Young Farmers – a group of dairy farmers in the mid-Kerry region who are raising funds for the palliative care services provided by the Kerry Hospice Foundation – managed to do a socially-distant relay event overnight (Sunday, December 20, to Monday, December 21) at An Ríocht athletics club in Castleisland, Co. Kerry.
They did 343 laps of the track, a distance of 137.05km, equivalent to over three marathons.
Through the group’s fundraising page on GoFundMe, over €8,100 has been donated so far, well and truly exceeding the initial €5,000 target.
Speaking to AgriLand, Kerry Hospice Foundation chairman Jack Shanahan said he was there after 8:00am this morning to see the farmers finishing up their relay and that they were in great form, but with a few blisters.
“It was a fantastic job by them in fairness,” Shanahan said.
They did the equivalent of over three marathons, which is enormous – they were only expected to do two. It’s great, so fair dues to them.
“The fundraiser is at that stage now where the money is going to come from it and will really benefit the services.”
‘We lost our big fundraisers’
Unsurprisingly, Shanahan said that this year has been very tough for the hospice without it being able to do its normal fundraising events.
“We have a lot of money to raise every year because we have commitments – if we don’t raise it, we’re in trouble,” he continued.
“We lost our big fundraisers like our county-wide Hospice Sunflower Day, coffee mornings effectively gone, it was a disaster.
In saying that, people have been very generous. People have recognised that we have a problem this year.
“People have been coming to our aid…we have had things like our virtual remembrance Christmas tree and the hospice Christmas cards sold out last week which is just phenomenal.
“People are thinking of us and they are helping us where they can.”
Shanahan added that it was a nice way of bringing people together for a good cause, in a way that was possible.
“Even with the group’s own meetings and things, it has all been virtual. They haven’t been able to do what they’re used to doing so it was great we were able to have this at least.”
The young farmers’ team consists of James Paul Mangan; Dan Daly; Edward Sullivan; Eoghan McCarthy; John Fleming; John McCarthy; Mike Quirke; Niall Browne; Paddy Sheehan; Paudie O’Brien; Seamus Foley; Sean Joy; Shane Carroll; Tim Fitzgerald; and Colm Counihan.