Eimear kicks off mammoth charity fundraising drive

Eimear kicks off mammoth charity fundraising drive

4 September 2019

LOUGHINISLAND woman Eimear Murray is aiming to complete five first-time sporting experiences this week in a major fundraising effort.

Eimear who plays ladies’ gaelic football for her local GAA club, is doing marathon distances in running, swimming, rowing and cycling in aid of local charities.

The 23 year-old completed the first of two marathon runs on Monday with her proud mother, Deirdre, cheering her along the 26.2 mile route.

The student nurse completed the distance in five hours and 19 minutes, starting off from her Loughinisland home close to the Teconnaught Road club just after 6am.

She did a 80km cycle ride yesterday and plans to do 440 lengths of the 50m pool in Bangor today.

Eimear has already raised her £2,000 target to support Daisy Lodge in Newcastle and little Katie Rose McKeown from Armagh in her on-going fight against cancer.

However, she hopes that more donations will be made as her challenge continues this week.

Speaking on Monday night, Eimear said that she was feeling surprisingly fresh and strong in her legs after completing her first road marathon.

“I finished at 11.19am with no one else there only my mum cheering me on,” said Eimear. “We both went off afterwards to Brennan’s for breakfast and when we got home I went and had a cold bath and it seemed to really help with my legs.”

She said that after she reached 16 miles, she celebrated every next mile as she had never ran beyond 16 miles before.

“I kept telling myself, just one more mile but when I got to 22 miles, the last three miles felt as hard as the previous 22 miles but I’m just glad that I did it,” added Eimear.

She will be back at Brennan’s in Loughinisland on Thursday, where she used to work in the The Stick cafe, to do a marathon distance on a rowing machine.

Shoppers will also be able to see her in action from around 9am to midday.

A final running marathon on Friday, again starting off from her Loughlnisland home along the local minor roads, will finish off her challenge.

She hopes that her team-mates from the Loughinisland senior ladies’ side will join her at various points of the road and will help her over the line.

Eimear has been doing extra training, above her four sessions that she does with Loughinisland GAC in preparation for her big challenge.

She will soon start her second year studying nurse at Queen’s University Belfast following in the footsteps of her midwife mother.

Loughinisland GAC is hosting a special reception in her honour on Friday night from 8.30pm with music, food and raffles to aid her chosen charities.

Donations can still be made at charity buckets at selected local shops and venues but online donations can made at https://justgiving.com/teams/katieroseanddaisylodge.