A Donegal man has raised €32,000 for the Donegal Hospice, after his amazing Camino journey.
Milford man Garret Wilson took on the challenge of walking 260 kilometers from the Portuguese capital of Porto to the historic Santiago de Compostela – the route of the Camino Portugues.
He took on the challenge in the final week of April along with his friend Gary Ryan, in memory of Garret’s late father, John Wilson.
The idea for a camino walk indeed came from John, who sadly passed while in the hospice last year. Garret saw the opportunity to both carry out the camino walk his father wanted to, but also a chance to raise money for the organisation that had taken such good care of his father before his death.
“My father was admitted four different times last year to the hospice and he always had a very positive experience there,” Garret told Donegal Daily.
“Last year he suggested he would like to organise a walk on the camino as a fundraiser to raise money for the Hospice, so this year we did that in his memory.”
Along with an online fundraiser, a draw was also organised as part of the charity walk – with prizes being donated towards the effort.
“We received so much support from everyone in the community and also from local businesses, It goes with out saying how good the staff of the hospice is. As a family we can’t thank them enough for the care they gave my father and we hope that this donation now will help someone else out there now,” Garret said.
“Huge thanks to everyone for all of their support… it would never been possible without all of their help. Walking 250 km was a very small part of the fundraiser, I feel the hard work was done by the people behind the scenes who turned up to help with collection days and went out of their was to make this happen.”
A Franciscan blessing from Santiago de Compostela, also donated to the Donegal Hospice.
All-in-all, €32,000 was raised and donated to the Donegal Hospice, which was means for a celebration also.
A presentation dance was organised at the Plaza in Buncranam with Michael Cleary providing the soundtrack free of charge, and a cheque was handed over to Isobel Rodgers and Olivia Kelly from the Donegal Hospice.
