Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Hi Folks

My good friend Dermot McCrossan will soon be officially a Grumpy old man (just like me) he will be joining the overs 60s club, for anyone who doesn’t know Dermot (not many don’t know him) he’s been a long-time friend of mine going way back to our days in Arntz belting co. Dermot one of them friends who will not tell you what you want to hear when seeking advice he will always have a measured answer but an honest one he has a way with words many of them I can’t print here lol. We have been running together now for some time going around Derry Tyrone and Donegal doing wee races having the craic I think I would have stopped running a few years ago only Dermot give me back a purpose to keep running.

It was during our training for the 2023 Derry half marathon Dermot was starting to complain about wee niggles and breathing he was looking at me for sympathy (he was knocking at the wrong door there), we battered on with the training down around inch island then in for a fry on the way home. We got round the half marathon he insisted that I ran on as he was getting it tight little did we know how tight he was getting it, in the coming weeks going through test after test he told me the devastating news he was diagnosed with MND (Motor Neurone Disease). Dermot kept up doing our wee 5k runs in Gransha for a few weeks after the diagnoses we chatted through things in them runs, which I would have found most difficult to do if we were not running but Dermot made them conversations so easy for me, but we were soon back on track on our running conversations ripping the back out of a few and getting a good gossip lol.

Dermot will be hitting the big 60 in June so to honour my friend I will be running 60 laps around St Columbs park running track but I will need a bit of support and maybe join me for a lap or two, this will take place on Thursday 27th June starting at 6pm I will be travelling slow lol so I can get the laps in, also thank you for checking out my page and if you can please leave a donation no matter how small it all adds up

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.