Over €7,200 raised for Motor Neurone Disease

RAISING vital funds and awareness of and for Motor Neurone Disease remains the primary goal for Christy Lehane and all the rest of the tireless volunteers at the Kerry Friends of Motor Neurone group.

The year just gone has been no different, with Christy and the group accepting a cheque of €7,211 this past week – the proceeds of a volunteer-led coffee morning and, even more eyebrow-raising, an abseil off the side of Croke Park.

“It’s a huge amount of money to get from a kind of small area in east Kerry, you know Rathmore and the surrounding area there. They are an area that has seen its fair share of suffering from Motor Neurone Disease (MND),” said Chairperson of the group, Christy Lehane, speaking on Friday.

“Yet there is still a great spirit of generosity and kindness there in the area. We are very lucky to have people such as Shirley Nagle, Kay O’Keeffe, Nora O’Connor, Gráinne Lynch and Sheila Casey, who were the real workers behind the coffee morning, which was an absolute success,” he continued.

Again, Christy reserved great praise for the ladies who in October climbed 100ft to the top of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park for an abseiling challenge to raise funding for the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association.

“This challenge was certainly not for the faint-hearted, but as the girls said, it was for a great cause as 86 per cent of the Irish Motor Neurone Disease budget is reliant on local fundraisers like Shirley’s and the rest,” Christy added.

All the money raised from the two events will go towards helping the cover the costs of keeping a dedicated MND nurse to support the area.

Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin. Christy Lehane and volunteers from the ‘Kerry Friends of Motor Neurone’ pictured receiving a cheque of €7,211 – the proceeds of a recent coffee morning fundraiser and charity abseil challenge.