Story
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
As most of you will know my wife Mairead has suffered from illness from a young age culminating in her requiring a liver transplant. After a couple of years on the waiting list and one false alarm when travelled to London and prepped for op only for the liver to be unfit for transplant she finally received her gift of life on 22nd September 2017. Mairead was completely yellow by this stage and scratching the skin of herself to the point where had cuts all over here body and basically would not be here now only for the gift from her donor (to whom we will be eternally grateful). It has been far from smooth sailing since then unfortunately with frequent spells in hospital, particularly in late 2020 and early 2021 and at Easter 2021 she suffered acute rejection episode which resulted in us having to go back to Kings in London for two weeks for Mairead to receive experimental treatment to try to save the liver. Thankfully that worked and although there have been bumps along the way since (including another couple of hospital stays) things are currently all good (touch wood). There are no liver transplants available in the North so patient's generally have to travel to England. Throughout our transplant journey, like other families in this situation, the RVH liver support group have been a massive support and assistance. Whether is is sorting out arrangements or simply providing advice for patients and family members the help is greatly appreciated. Mairead decided to volunteer my services to run a marathon as a fundraiser for the charity last year! I had been training hard for a target time but a combination of a few niggles have made me miss large chunks of training (my body telling me that at 42 years old its not possible to train for a marathon and play masters football maybe!). Reached a big milestone today in running 20 mile though I suffered beyond belief so don't know how I'm gonna run another 6.2 mile on top of that in 5 weeks time but ignorance will get me through I'm sure! I've set a target of £3000 for this wonderful charity and 80% of whatever is raised will go towards the charity. 10% will go to the Kevin Bell repatriation fund which is a wonderful charity which helps bereaved families from all over Ireland who have lost loved ones overseas to being their loved ones home from all parts of the world. The other 10% will got to Air Ambulance NI which I'm sure we all know someone who they have helped! This charity has been chosen by the Mulgrew family in memory of Fergal - the man who inspired me to first run a marathon (I can tell you I was not thanking him this morning) and who's memory lives on with us all when we are pounding the road on our own at times! Any donations to these three wonderful causes are welcome and I promise I'll get round the course even if I've to crawl home! I will have sponsorship forms available in various locations as well