Connacht Tribune
Long-distance runner crosses continents for Galway Hospice
A Loughrea man who only took up running four years ago ran two marathons in a week on two continents and raised a phenomenal €21,000 for the Galway Hospice.
Mark Moran ran the Dublin Marathon last October 31 and travelled across the Atlantic to run the New York Marathon six days later. The 34-year-old engineer funded both events himself to ensure that all donations collected went directly to the hospice.
He chose the facility after his own mother Teresa Moran availed of the service two decades ago when she was dying from cancer at age 45. At the time Mark was 13 years old.
Mark, who works at Penn Engineering in Mervue in the city, decided to do something really special to mark the twentieth anniversary of her death.
In total, he raised €21,415 for the Galway Hospice’s home care, day care and bereavement support services, which cost €1.8 million to provide.
To drum up donations, he held a giant raffle in McNamees Bar in Loughrea for which 42 prizes were donated. He held other auctions with donations of signed and framed Connacht Rugby jerseys.
“I’m still a bit in shock. I’m so thrilled, couldn’t be happier with how it all went. At the start of it, if I had raised half that amount I would have been happy.
“The support I got from family and friends was amazing. Fundraising manager Joanne Tierney was phenomenal. She just kept pushing me to do more and I thought this is something I’ll do once, I might as well do it right,” he exclaimed.
“The running was actually the easy bit. Collecting the books, tracking the numbers – it was a busy eight or nine months alright.”
Four years ago, Mark started running as a way of getting out of the house on the dark evenings. He started off doing 5k and 8k challenging, slowly building up to his first marathon last year in Dublin.
Nowadays he runs three times a week, although in training he upped that to five times a week with two circuit training classes.
And then there was the nightly dip in Loughrea lake to help with the recovery process.
He clocked a personal best time of three hours, 37 minutes in the Dublin marathon which boasted the biggest ever entry for 2016. When he set off for New York he knew he had more left in the can.
“There were 50,000 running it and over a million spectators – the skyline as you run makes you feel your head is in the clouds. There are live bands performing every mile – from gospel, heavy metal, opera, pop – outside pubs, people’s houses, my ears were just ringing with the buzz. It was definitely one of the best experiences in my life.” He hit a time of three hours, 53 minutes.
He was touched by all the personal stories retold to him while organising the events. So many people across the city and county have had their own brush with the Galway Hospice and are just so willing to help, he stresses.
“I definitely have a connection with the hospice now, in the future I may become a volunteer there. It’s the most happy place, which I know is an unusual thing to say. There’s no such thing as ‘no’ in there. When you see all they do. It’s like a big family in there.”
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
Galway 3-18
Cork 1-10
NEW setting; new opposition; new challenge. It made no difference to the Galway minor hurlers as they chalked up a remarkable sixth consecutive double digits championship victory at Semple Stadium on Saturday.
The final scoreline in Thurles may have been a little harsh on Cork, but there was no doubting Galway’s overall superiority in setting up only a second-ever All-Ireland showdown against Clare at the same venue on Sunday week.
Having claimed an historic Leinster title the previous weekend, Galway took a while to get going against the Rebels and also endured their first period in a match in which they were heavily outscored, but still the boys in maroon roll on.
Beating a decent Cork outfit by 14 points sums up how formidable Galway are. No team has managed to lay a glove on them so far, and though Clare might ask them questions other challengers haven’t, they are going to have to find significant improvement on their semi-final win over 14-man Kilkenny to pull off a final upset.
Galway just aren’t winning their matches; they are overpowering the teams which have stood in their way. Their level of consistency is admirable for young players starting off on the inter-county journey, while the team’s temperament appears to be bombproof, no matter what is thrown at them.
Having romped through Leinster, Galway should have been a bit rattled by being only level (0-4 each) after 20 minutes and being a little fortunate not to have been behind; or when Cork stormed out of the blocks at the start of the second half by hitting 1-4 to just a solitary point in reply, but there was never any trace of panic in their ranks.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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GARDAÍ and the IFA have issued a joint appeal to all road users to take extra care as the silage season gets under way across the country.
Silage harvesting started in many parts of Galway last week – and over the coming month, the sight of tractors and trailers on rural roads will be getting far more frequent.
Inspector Conor Madden, who is in charge of Galway Roads Policing, told the Farming Tribune that a bit of extra care and common-sense from all road users would go a long way towards preventing serious collisions on roads this summer.
“One thing I would ask farmers and contractors to consider is to try and get more experienced drivers working for them.
“Tractors have got faster and bigger – and they are also towing heavy loads of silage – so care and experience are a great help in terms of accident prevention,” Inspector Madden told the Farming Tribune.
He said that tractor drivers should always be aware of traffic building up behind them and to pull in and let these vehicles pass, where it was safe to do so.
“By the same token, other road users should always exercise extra care; drive that bit slower; and ‘pull in’ that bit more, when meeting tractors and heavy machinery.
“We all want to see everyone enjoying a safe summer on our roads – that extra bit of care, and consideration for other roads users can make a huge difference,” said Conor Madden.
He also advised motorists and tractor drivers to be acutely aware of pedestrians and cyclists on the roads during the summer season when more people would be out walking and cycling on the roads.
The IFA has also joined in on the road safety appeal with Galway IFA Farm Family and Social Affairs Chair Teresa Roche asking all road users to exercise that extra bit of care and caution.
“We are renewing our annual appeal for motorists to be on the look out for tractors, trailers and other agricultural machinery exiting from fields and farmyards,” she said.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App
Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.
Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite HERE.
Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
