Johnny to embark on wild atlantic way cycle challenge

Fundraiser supreme Johnny Oosten is on his bike again. This time, he and eight others will cycle the 1,600k Wild Atlantic Way from Cork to Derry to raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society and Western Care Association. Other cyclists are invited to join in the challenge by undertaking individual stages in May, writes Tom Gillespie.

This will be Johnny’s fourth major fundraising drive. Initially he undertook a sponsored walk for the provision of a CAT scan machine at Mayo General Hospital, Castlebar. Later he launched the annual seven-day Croagh Patrick Challenge, which raised €750,000 in three years, and more recently he pioneered the Greenway Challenge for CF West who are about to open a state-of-the-art €1 million CF centre at Mayo General Hospital.

As a teenager Johnny was involved in an accident and was left in a coma for four months. He recalled the incident: “I was going to the vocational school in Westport at the time. On May 18, 1979, a Friday night, I was at the cinema in Ballinrobe with a friend. On the way home on a Honda 50 we had an accident and I woke on September 23 in Dr. Stephen’s Hospital in Dublin. I was out cold for four months.

“It was a serious accident. I lost part of my jaw and I have a plastic elbow.”

Johnny’s father, Jan Vanden Oosten, was a skipper in the Dutch merchant navy and used to come to Westport with coal and timber. Explained Johnny: “It was there he met my mother, Kathleen Kelly. But he had to go back to sea again. He travelled the world and the next time he came to Westport he did a runner and they got married in Westport in 1962.”

After he recovered from the accident, Johnny got involved in doing youth discos in the old Town Hall in Westport. He later got involved with radio, with Midwest Radio, and more recently with Community Radio Castlebar (CRC), where he's back again doing the morning show.

Talking about the Wild Atlantic Way Cycle Challenge, Johnny said he wanted to do something for the Irish Cancer Society and Western Care. He explained: “The first Wild Atlantic Way Cycle Challenge will take place from May 8 to 21. There are 14 stages in it. We are kicking off in Kinsale on May 8 and finishing in Derry on May 21.

“We are asking people to do a stage for €50. We will be asking them to pay themselves or otherwise take out sponsorship cards.

“I am not a cyclist. It is completely out of my zone. It is going to be tough work for me. But it is a leisure cycle. I know there is mileage to be covered but it is a leisure cycle where people can cycle and talk at the same time, take a photograph of the scenery and yet we know there are 70 or 80km to be completed each day. It is no race.

“There will be nine of us doing the complete route. Four of those have never been on a bike before and I am one of them. The last time I was on a bike it was a three-wheeler. But I am going to do it. I want to do it and I will do it.

“We are appealing for as many as possible to help us. This event is for everybody. It is not competitive.”