IT Sligo Tourism students, in conjunction with the Carers Association, have organised a charity marathon cycle, mountain climb and camping expedition that will take place over 10 days in the North West from the 1st to the 11th of April 2012. The aim of the ‘Dare2Care Challenge’ is to highlight the work done by young carers and to raise much needed funds for support services for young carers.
The Dare2Care Challenge will begin from Mt. Errigal, Co. Donegal and finish at IT Sligo’s Knocknarea Arena, and the participants will cycle through six counties – Donegal, Sligo, Leitrim, Roscommon, Galway and Mayo before. While passing through each county they will climb the highest mountain in each county and will be camping out each night.
The Dare2Care Challenge will be launched at IT Sligo next Tuesday, March 20th, with the support of IT Sligo students.
The participating team is made up of a teacher; a garda; an electrician and two soldiers. The team consists of Sligo natives Aaron Tonry (Teacher in Castletroy College Limerick), James Neary (Detective Garda in Dublin), Jarlath Monaghan (Electrician in Dublin) and Brendan Tonry (Soldier, Custume Barracks Athlone). A number of other participants will be joining the team along the route for a couple of days.
Brendan Tonry, who is the team leader and a graduate of IT Sligo, has expressed his gratitude to people who have been supporting fund raising events over the past weeks gone by. “It’s great to see that, in despite of these hard financial times, people are still willing to support local charity events. The team has been buoyed by the amount of support we have received in recent weeks and we cannot wait for the 1st of April so we can put all those days of training into practice.”
The newly appointed area manager of The Carers Association, Rosaleen Doonan’s driving ambition is to raise the awareness of Young Carers and give them the recognition and supports they deserve; “Little is known about Ireland’s Young Carers. Yet everyday throughout Ireland young people quietly care for sick or disabled relatives, bound by bonds of love and loyalty. It is essential to raise awareness about young carers and with the help of Brendan Tonry and his friends we devised this very novel and daring 10 day fundraising event in aid of Young Carers.”
Fund raising events have been taking place across the North West in the lead up to the Dare2Care Challenge to raise awareness and collect much needed funds for the charity.
For more information about the Carers Association, please contact Rosaleen Doonan on carerssligo@nullcarersireland.com
