I was approached by a college buddy on facebook on 19th of April to see if TrimAC would be able to do something to raise money for Dan Donoher, a young child with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. His diagnosis was very grim. He would be lucky to live much beyond the age of 2. Fortunately there is a procedure in the USA which can be life altering. Unfortunately it costs 2 million euro. GAA clubs had already rallied behind the cause and my friend thought that Trim AC could join the cause. His GAA club were doing a 400k in a day walk, jog,cycle for Dan.

I sent out feelers to  one of our Watsapp groups to see if there was a willingness to help. The response was very positive so I put a message out on the Trim meet and Train facebook page to see if pople would be willing to run a few kms for Dan on Sunday 2nd of May. In the space of a couple of hours we had 20 people had gotten back to me all offering to do there bit. I set up a Facebook fundraiser page for Trim Athletics club 400k in a day. As more people came on board over the next day the ante was soon upped to 500k in a day.

As we approached the weekend of the run I put another post up on the Trim AC meet and train page to go over social distancing etc and to put it out there to anyone else that had not been in contact with me to join in with a few kms of there own. Roll on to Sunday May 2nd and I was overwhelmed with the response from our club members. Not only did we have the initial 20 members running but we finished with 44 members running distances ranging from 6km to 53km.

Special mention has to go to Shane Parkinson who seemed to glide his way around over 53km, 4 marathons, 20 people covered 20km plus each, and so many other distances covered between the rest.  915 km covered between everyone to absolutely blow the 500km target out of the water.

I was out at 6.30am for my marathon run on what seemed like the perfect morning for running. I passed several of the crew running there own distances (socially distant) and the feeling of support and togetherness was inspiring. As the day went on my phone was constantly going with more and more people updating me with their runs.

There was such a buzz of good will and good energy flowing through those taking part. It was an amazing experience to be part of. It was nice to give purpose to our runs in these strange times. It felt like we were brought together with this great group effort when we have to stay apart. I am so happy to be part of such a wonderful club with amazing people that were willing to put their money, time and energy into a cause for a child that none of us know. It was an amazing experience to be part of and I am immensely proud to say that as a club our 915km raised an amazing 2162 euro. Thank you to everyone that took part and donated.