Mayo man’s Dublin City Marathon fundraiser

A CASTLEBAR man will be taking on his biggest challenge to date to raise funds for charity.

Damien Finnegan, of Knockaphunta, Castlebar, will run the Dublin City Marathon on October 30 and raise funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

He picked this charity with his mother-in-law, Carmel Mulchrone, in mind, who has just finished treatment for breast cancer. The Irish Cancer Society provide invaluable support to people facing cancer treatment and fund research projects in Ireland.

"My mother-in-law was diagnosed last year. She was very sick and treatment hit her very hard. I had no real plan what I wanted to do. I was into running the last few years and the furthest I'd ran before was a half-marathon and I decided to the challenge of the full marathon and it has gone from there," he said

An avid runner, he is a member of Mayo AC and has been training for the Dublin City Marathon since February.

"The training has been gradually building throughout the summer as I've been building. Mayo AC have been great support. I run twice a week with my wife. I do running with Mayo AC and some running on my own.

"I've been shocked with the amount of support I got. Within the first three hours of putting this on up on Facebook, I got over €1,000 raised.”

You can donate to Damien's fundraiser here.