Sinead Martin organised a bucket collection in Donegal Town today in her quest to raise €4,900 for the Irish Cancer Society in memory of her father, Paddy O’Donnell.
Not only did Sinead hit her goal; she smashed it! Following today’s collection, Sinead has raised €5,569!
Sinead had already raised €3,900, but the collection in Donegal Town pulled in a massive €1,669.55!
A bit of rain didn’t dampen any spirits!
She said; “€4,900 was my target because dad passed away aged 49, so I figured that €100 for every year is an achievable yet significant amount.”
Sinead’s little helpers!
“This is something I have wanted to do for a while now. Dad, Paddy or Pat lost his battle to cancer on the 7th February 2012 aged 49. It was a day I will never forget and the date will be en-grained in my memory forever. The day I lost my Dad to cancer my world as I once knew it changed forever not only did I lose my Dad but also a best friend.”
“He was a great man, so giving to everyone without expecting anything in return. He was easy to chat to and have the craic with and had many friends from all walks of life because of it. It was a complete shock to everyone when he was diagnosed at the end of 2011, but we were hopeful that with some chemotherapy radiotherapy he would be back to his old self in no time.”
“Unfortunately it was the opposite and in a matter of weeks his health deteriorated and lost his battle to cancer on the 7th February in Galway University Hospital surrounded by family and friends.”
“Grief… No one can prepare you for it or what it entails and everyone deals with it differently, I found myself on a long bumpy road trying to make sense of it all. After a few months I could tell that if I kept going the way I was it was going to ruin me, I was bitter with the world and kept focusing on what my Dad was robbed off and what we wouldn’t get to experience with him.”
“I came to a cross roads… keep this negative attitude and be bitter or try to turn it around and take a positive from it. after a lot of soul searching I decided to take the road to being positive and to remember all the good and what we got to experience, that we were luckier than others and remember “it can always be worse”.”
“I always ran and took comfort and solace in this in the following months after his death, it was during one of these runs I decided that I wanted to do something to give back in his memory. I have ran three marathons before but this one will hold the most importance and personal value to me, I have set myself the goal of breaking my personal best time and to raise €4,900 euros an achievable but considerable amount.”
Sinead has been training hard for the upcoming marathon!
Sinead will also be running Dublin City Marathon at the end of October in memory of her dad.
If you would like to help Sinead out you can donate here.
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