Barefield man enters Guinness Book of Records

CHRISTY Healy collected his certificate from Guinness World Records at the weekend after the organisation confirmed he is the first man to complete a 10km dive without surfacing.
The Barefield man undertook the dive in Lough Derg recently to raise money for Limerick-based charity, Share A Dream Foundation. He completed the task in six hours and 21 minutes.
This length of the dive, recorded with photographs, video and technical evidence, proved sufficient for Guinness World Records to award Christy with a certificate confirming his accolade. The award was presented to Christy at the annual Share A Dream Foundation Children of Courage Awards in Limerick on Saturday night.
The successful dive was Christy’s second attempt at the record in three weeks having previously attempted the task off the North Clare coast in October, where he managed 9.4km before surfacing.
“I have the evidence that I did it. I have the plaque and I have the card and the whole lot and I’m happy with that. We have raised €14,000 so far for Share a Dream. It wasn’t just myself out collecting, we had about 70 people on that job. It is winding down a bit but we will still take money off anyone willing to give it. Anyone who wants to give us a cheque, we’ll happily accept it, or if they want they want, they can contact Share a Dream directly. Initially, we started thinking that we would raise €2,000, then €5,000, then €10,000 and now we really want to hit €15,000,” Christy commented.
The Barefield man is modest about his achievement.
“I received the certificate at the Children of Courage Awards. There was one young fella there who had a leg amputated and he was out dancing at the disco afterwards and then there were others who were very, very sick and the money we raised goes to them. What I did is just a walk in the park compared to what they and their families go through,” Christy concluded.