Two friends are embarking on an epic horseback trek from Donegal to Dingle to raise funds for two important causes.
At 2pm today (Saturday) John Doherty from Letterkenny and Shane Barry from Leitrim will be trotting off from Ballyraine in the direction of Kerry.
They’re taking on the mighty challenge in memory of a beloved baby girl – Aria Rose – to raise funds for Ronald McDonald House and Cian’s Kennels.
Families are invited to the send-off from 12noon to 2pm at Sweeney’s Spar Letterkenny, where there will be a chance to get a photo with the famous horses ‘Tom and Jerry’ and enjoy some face painting. All welcome!
‘Aria’s Adventure’ is in memory of Aria Rose Wilkie-Barry, who passed away peacefully in February, aged 16 months. She had spent almost her entire life in hospital, having been born prematurely with severe complex needs.
Aria Rose’s legacy continues to inspire her family and community to this day.
Her mum Tracey Wilkie is from Letterkenny and her dad Shane Barry is originally from Ballygawley. They both share a love of horse riding, so when they were deciding on a way to give back to charity in memory of their baby girl, they chose trekking.
Shane enlisted John, their close family friend, to join the 450km challenge. John runs his own maintenance company in Letterkenny, Newlook Property Maintenance. He has been horseriding for two years now, and in recent weeks has been training non-stop for the challenge.
Shane and Tracey with their beloved baby, the late Aria Rose
All funds raised from the trek will go to Ronald McDonald House, which provides accommodation for families with critically ill children, and Cian’s Kennels, which ensured the family’s dogs could be close while they attended Crumlin Hospital.
Shane and John’s ride is expected to take between two and three weeks on country roads.
The care of the horses will be the priority throughout the journey. Organisers have arranged on-call vets and blacksmiths along the route.
John explained: “The horses’ wellbeing is the number one priority above all else we have been training these horses all year for the mileage so they are all fit as fiddles. We have secondary horses, if and when needed, and scheduled rest days to rest them up and us as well. We will be at walking pace most of the time so we won’t be pushing them on.
“With a commitment like this, we are of course excited and at the same time mindful of the huge task at hand. But all in all we are delighted to be in a position to raise money for such great charities.”
Video: Shane Barry and John Doherty training for their adventure with Tom and Jerry
With each kilometre, Shane and John will be raising awareness for two charities that helped keep the Wilkie-Barry family together.
Tracey and Shane explained: “Our beautiful baby girl Aria Rose was born with complex needs and a rare syndrome but miraculously continued to defy all odds for 16 months and then gained her wings as an angel on the 17th of February 2023.
“Aria Rose was so loving, brave, strong, funny and massively inspirational, we learnt so much about values in life from her. Kindness, support, positivity, appreciation, trust, patience, belief is what filled our days.
“We spent her entire life in hospital with only 12 days at home. We could not have stayed everyday close as a family if we hadn’t of had the support from Ronald McDonald House and Cians Kennels.
“They both became our extended family helping us find light in our darkest days, a roof over our heads, food in our stomach and our dogs close by to go for a walk with to clear our heads is priceless, these are true luxuries when you have a child long term in hospital, life becomes very different but we found “hope in kindness” and that is exactly what we got from these two amazing charities and will be forever grateful that they kept us as a family, so we are trying to give back in the hope they we can pay it forward to other families by raising as much as we can. We thank you in advance for helping to make this happen.”
The goal for Aria’s Donegal to Dingle Trek has been set at €10,000, and any donation is greatly appreciated:
Donations can be made to https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/ariasadventures
