FATHER AND SON RAISE OVER €10K
FATHER AND SON COMPLETE 21-DAY DSI CHALLENGE
AIDAN GANNON may only be 16 months old but he has helped raise more than €10,000 for Down Syndrome Ireland (DSI) after embarking on the kind of adventure usually only reserved for grown-ups.
Along with his dad, David, the toddler travelled 100km during 21 days in June and received a hero’s welcome when he completed his mammoth task outside Sarsfield’s GAA Club. As part of the DSI 21 Day Challenge, David ran around the roads of Clonard all while pushing Aidan along in his buggy.
‘Aidan enjoyed it, he made me run around a good bit, but it kept me fit and healthy,’ said David of their experience. ‘Initially, I decided to do the run to spend time with my son, to do something together, the fundraising element was almost a bonus.’
A PE teacher by trade, David ordinarily runs only for recreational purposes but said that the prospect of doing 100km in just three weeks wasn’t all that daunting.
‘I’m strictly an amateur, a part-time runner, I do it for health and fitness reasons. But I wasn’t too daunted by the prospect of doing 100km in 21 days.
‘I figured I would do 5km for ten days, then have a rest day and then do the same for another ten days. We had people who’d offered to push the buggy if things got too hard but we both managed it in the end,’ he said.
And that end came with a surprise for both David and Aidan.
‘Having people cheer us on came as a total surprise, I had no idea that was happening. I was a little bit emotional when I saw them all. Aidan was just overwhelmed, but he was smiling, he’s a real smiler,’ David said.
David’s teammates at the Sarsfield’s had to go to great lengths to ensure the welcome remained a surprise.
‘I play football for Sarsfield’s and we have a group chat for all the team and they actually removed me from it prior to the last run.
‘When they put me back in and I was saying, “lads I know I’m 35 but I’m not ready to finish up yet”. But obviously they wanted to discuss their plans without me knowing.’
Incredibly, after setting a target of €1,000, David and Aidan raised ten times that amount, money which will go towards funding support services at DSI.
‘We were absolutely shocked by the amount raised. We put a target of €1,000 on it, we thought that would be a nice figure, but it kept going and going.
‘What was great was pupils of mine, and former pupils, were donating a fiver here and there, that was really heartwarming,’ said David, as he thanked his wife Cliona for her support throughout the three weeks.