TIM O DRISCOLL & ROSS FOLEY

Thank you for taking the time for reading this post we are doing this challenge to hopefully bring attention and funding for The Gavin Glynn Foundation. 

Whilst the HSE may cover the cost of specialist medical treatment abroad it is unable to cover the other costs associated with having to travel and live abroad for a long period of time whilst your child is undergoing the necessary treatment. The mission of the Gavin Glynn Foundation is to assist families with all the logistical and financial aspects of travelling overseas for specialist cancer treatment which is not available in Ireland. The Foundation believes that all children with cancer deserve the best care, wherever in the world that might be, supporting the parents in accessing and organising that care is what the Foundation does. Keeping the whole family together, during travel for a child’s cancer treatment, is essential for the wellbeing of the patient, as well as the parents and siblings, this is why The Foundation covers the travel and accommodation costs for the whole family. By taking the financial burden and stress away from the families, it allows parents to focus all their time on their child and family, which is what Caroline, Tim, Leah, Aaron, Tiernan and Oisín appreciated as their daughter and sister Ellie underwent specialist cancer treatment in Germany. It’s stressful enough finding out that your child has cancer but that stress level doubles when you find out that the treatment is not offered in Ireland and trying to figure out ‘How do we do it’. The Foundations steps in and organises everything for you, taking this element of the stress away from you and your family. Thankfully Ellie’s time in Germany has been a success, her treatment went as planned and everything went smoothly. From the perspective of having to move to another country for a month Caroline’s only stress was what to pack for herself and Ellie, The Gavin Glynn Foundation took take of everything else.

 As a token of appreciation for the help that the foundation have given Caroline, Tim and their family a charity event is being organised to help raise funds so that other families can benefit from the help and support that The Foundation  The event that is being organised we are calling Pedal to the Peaks (P2P), Tim O’Driscoll, Ross Foley and Tim Mullen are planning on hiking the highest summit in each of the 4 provinces in Ireland one after the other, the real challenge is not the summits themselves but they get between the summits. Instead of taking the easy option and driving Tim O'Driscoll and Ross will be cycling from start to finish from one summit to the other with Tim Mullen following in the support vehicle. Starting at the base of Seefin, in the Ballyhoura mountain range County Limerick the P2P team will tackle each of the 4 mountains one after the other and back home again. The list below identifies the sequence at which the mountains will be tackled, their heights and the distances between them;

Seefin (528m) to Lugnaquilla (925m) in County Wicklow 180km;

Lugnaqilla to Slieve Donard (850m) County Down 193km;

Slieve Donard to Mweelrea (814m) County Galway 333km;

Mweelrea to Carrauntoohil (1038m) County Kerry 293km;

Carrauntoohil to Home 107km.

In all an estimated total of 4155m of climbing will be done on the hikes with over 1100km of cycling in between.

Looking at the event conservatively we estimated that it will take 7 days to complete starting on the morning of Saturday 1st of October 2022 but obviously the quicker we finish the sooner the pain will end 😊.If you could support our effort with a personal donation it would be very much appreciated we also would love to receive company sponsorships for which advertising will be provided either on our kit and / or on our support vehicle. Updates on traiinng to date will be uploaded to our Pedal to the Peaks Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100083330951335

To start the event we will be tackling Seefin which is the highest peak at our local Ballyhoura mountain range and we encourage as many people as possible to come along and do this one with us and send us on our way. The encouragement and support will be very welcomed, also keep an eye on here for more information on this event over the coming weeks.

 Thanks again for your time, please stay safe and look after yourselves. Regards 

The P2P Team