Donna had everything to live for. She would have had an amazing life
In a touching tribute to his sister, safe cycling campaigner Neil Fox says...
TWO years ago, Neil Fox opened his front door to the news that his sister Donna had been killed in a cycling accident. It unleashed a pain, he says, that nobody should ever endure.
Holding a small Winnie-thePooh teddy and a bunch of flowers, Neil is preparing to visit the crash site where his sister lost her life to lay his poignant tributes in her memory.
On a bright September morning in 2016, Donna took her usual route to work as a health and nutrition expert at the Barrow Street branch of Meaghers pharmacy in south Dublin city.
Her route took her from the suburbs of North Co. Dublin and into the north inner city, where she would cycle across the bridge and past Grand Canal Basin to Barrow Street in Ringsend.
Donna lived with her partner Anne-Marie in a mobile home beside her father Peter’s home outside Balbriggan. The couple had been together for three years and were planning to build a house of their own.
On the morning of her tragic death, Donna reached the busy junction of Seville Place and Guild Street shortly before 11am, where she was knocked down by a truck.
The vibrant 30-year-old who had ‘so much to live for’ died at the scene from her injuries.
DRINKING a cup of coffee with the teddy bear tucked away in his bag, Neil, Donna’s older brother, opens up about the trauma of the past two years.
‘I think the grief is only really hitting me now,’ he says. ‘I blocked it all out. I have only just started to grieve properly.
‘I can still remember that awful morning two years ago. There was a knock on the door. When I opened it, two gardaí were standing there in their uniforms.
‘I instantly knew that something bad had happened. I remember saying, “It’s one of my sisters, isn’t it?”
‘The garda nodded and I just remember going numb.
‘It’s the worst feeling in the world. Only those who have lost a loved one so suddenly and so quickly truly understand,’ Neil says as he clutches his coffee cup.
It is the second anniversary of Donna’s death. Neil says that by talking about and campaigning for greater cycle safety, he hopes to protect other families from ‘enduring the gut-wrenching pain that I have gone through in losing Donna’.
Last year saw a record number of cyclists killed on our roads with 15 lives lost. Seven cyclists have died in road accidents so far this year. Donna’s brother sighs.
‘That’s seven devastating and life-changing knocks on the doors of loved ones left behind and we need to change this,’ he says.
The 38-year-old, who became a safe cycling campaigner following his sister’s fatal accident, says that the Government and Department of Transport need to wake up to the reality of the dangers on the roads for cyclists. ‘The United Nations has recommended that 20 per cent of overall funding for transport departments in the EU should go towards cycling and pedestrian infrastructure. ‘I would like to see the 20 per cent figure here in Ireland introduced to protect pedestrians and cyclists. I have teamed up with the Dublin cycling community to help raise greater awareness since my sister’s death. ‘[Minister for Transport] Shane Ross has been helpful, but there’s a lot more we can do for cycle safety in this country. Last year was the highest record for cyclist deaths in this country and that is shameful,’ says Neil. Donna’s death wasn’t the first tragedy to hit the Fox family. Neil’s mother Catherine passed away in 2011 from cancer. ‘She hadn’t been sick that long but we knew it was terminal. Donna was on holiday in Greece when she passed away,’ he says. ‘We were always quite close growing up, I was the eldest and then there was Donna and Leanne. We had a close bond.’ Earlier in the week before Donna’s accident, her bike was stolen. That morning she borrowed Anne-Marie’s bike and set off from her father’s house. ‘Donna was an experienced cyclist, she was used to the roads. There was nothing wrong with the bike she was on, it was just a tragic accident,’ says Neil.
‘I met the driver of the truck at Donna’s inquest and I actually hugged him. It wasn’t his fault, it was just a freak accident and sadly we lost Donna.’
He remembers his sister as a vibrant woman who loved horses.
‘She adored horse riding and show jumping. She was a real animal person and she had a little dog called Monty. She worked in the nutrition sector and was really into this,’ he says.
‘She took part in charity cycles over the years, in particular the one from Galway to Maynooth.’
IN his eulogy at his sister’s funeral, Neil thanked the local community, along with gardaí and emergency services, for all they did to try and save Donna’s life. He said that five years earlier, he had stood in the same church, on the occasion of his mother Catherine’s funeral.
‘There were the three of us, Donna, Leanne and me. My mam had died. I suppose a lot of people texted or rang and said, “Well at least she’s with your mammy now, you know?” There is some sort of comfort in that,’ he says.
Two years on from that dreadful September morning, Neil says he is finally beginning to heal.
‘It takes time. In the immediate aftermath of a tragedy, everyone is around and then life is supposed to go back to normal, but how can it?
‘I remember sitting in the car with Donna a few days before she died. We were chatting and she was giving me advice, that’s the kind of sister she was. She was always there for me and I miss our chats on the phone and her advice.
‘She had everything to live for, and I know she would have gone on to marry Anne-Marie and have a brilliant life. I’m still in contact with Anne-Marie, but I guess life has to move on in certain ways.’
Neil says that he will be forever thankful to those who came to his sister’s aid on the morning of the accident.
‘The woman who came to my sister’s side as she was dying — Amanda Burnby — is forever in my thoughts. She’s someone I have become friends with in the midst of this tragedy.
‘I’m just glad that Donna didn’t die alone.
‘Amanda is an air hostess who happened to be on the street at the time of the accident. She tried to save Donna’s life and for that I will be forever grateful.’
As he finishes his coffee and prepares to walk to the place where his sister drew her last breath, Neil is reflective.
‘If anything good can come from this, it’s the hope that motorists will slow down and be respectful of cyclists. Accidents happen, and I know Donna’s death was a tragic accident, but there is such a common disregard for cyclists on the road.
‘The next time you get into the car and see a cyclist, just think, it’s someone’s parent or child or brother or sister. Don’t become a statistic.
‘By being more aware, hopefully we can prevent another family getting the death knock at their front door.’