A KINAWLEY man is on a mission to raise vital funds for the Air Ambulance charity after he was rescued from a farming accident back in 2019 where his foot was partially crushed.
Ciarán Corrigan along with friends Damien Owens and Jason Martin will take on the mammoth challenge of running the Mourne Wall which is 35k long with a total elevation of almost 3000m on July 3.
“I had a farming accident nearly two years ago,” Ciarán told the Herald. “The ambulance service attended at the time and recommended for an Air Ambulance to come and transfer me to Belfast.”
Speaking on the importance of this life-saving service, Ciarán noted, “People don’t realise the benefit of it.
“By the time I got to Belfast on the day of the accident I was glad to be there as the pain had just started to kick in.
“It’s an unbelievable service that you can get from where we are to Belfast in 15 minutes and volunteers on the journey couldn’t have done enough for me. Thanks to this service, I was able to go into surgery at about 9:30 that night.”
Although surgery went well for the exercise-enthusiast, the severity of his injuries resulted in one of his toes being amputated.
“My injuries have never hindered me in anyway. I was lucky to recover and heal well, and the surgery was very successful.
“I have always been into running over the past five or six years and some cycling even before that.
“Since the accident I had always intended to do something for them.
However, with Covid I never got round to it so it’s great to see the fundraiser going ahead this year.”
Ciarán added, “Myself and the two boys have an attraction for the mountains so we’re heading to the Mournes and it will be a challenge in itself, we’re hoping to run as much of it as we can.
“We’ll have about a dozen mountains altogether to cover that day.
We’re hoping to start at about 5:30am as the heat would be the thing that would get to you more so than anything. It would drain you.”
To donate visit www.justgiving.com and search for “We’re raising £5,000 to help fund Air Ambulance” by Ciarán Corrigan.
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