Christy dives into the unknown for Share a Dream

A 40-year-old Kilmaley man is hoping to leap into the history books as he attempts to set the fastest time ever for an underwater dive from Crab Island to Doolin.
Christy Healy is taking on the 10km challenge in aid of the Share a Dream Foundation, which he encountered when his son, Stephen got sick last year.
“It is revolving around him, really. The reason we are doing this is because we were introduced to Share a Dream through him,” the Ennis resident said.
In March 2010, Christy’s son was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphoid tissue, which devastated Christy, his wife Trish and Stephen. During his time in hospital, Stephen was visited by Christy’s cousin Jonathan Mangan, a volunteer with Share A Dream Foundation. Jonathan was working on the design of the Dream Machine with Shay Kinsella and with his keen eye, Stephen contributed lots of ideas for both the exterior and interior of the project.
“The staff in Limerick were really brilliant but Jonathan could see Stephen was bored out of his head so he brought in a laptop and the internet and at the time, Share a Dream was designing the Dream Machine so Stephen got to put forward his ideas about what young lads would like from a dream machine,” Christy explained.
After six months of chemotherapy and a kidney operation, Stephen was given the all clear. However, Christy was deeply appreciative and moved by the support from Jonathan and the Share A Dream foundation and felt he had to give something back. “I wanted to do a charity event but I was thinking maybe a fun day or something, I definitely wasn’t planning something as gruelling as this,” he laughs.
Christy will attempt to set the fastest time ever for an underwater dive from Crab Island off the North Clare coast on September 18. He must remain underwater for the entire period and will carry a 12 litre tank of air on his chest. Each tank will last for 60 minutes or 1.8km approx and will then need to be changed, whilst remaining underwater each time it empties.
It is estimated that five to six tank changes will be required and the whole effort could take eight hours to complete.
“The only thing we need now to make sure the dive goes ahead is the weather. We really need the weather to be good, we won’t be able to tell until five or so days before the event but we will be watching the tides and I would expect to start fairly early, about 8 or 9am, because low tide is at 10am that morning and we would want to be in the water about two hours before then,” Christy said.
In 1997, Christy fell in love with diving and when the building industry collapsed and he could find no block-laying work, he decided to start the Atlantic Diving School in Ennis. Although he dives up to 200 times per year through his work, recreationally and as a volunteer search diver with the Civil Defence, an undertaking like a 10k dive takes intensive training. He began training for the world record attempt in March and is following a punishing training regime.
“I am training every night really between diving in Lough Cullaun near Corofin, core training on trampolines as well as running and sprinting,” he outlines.
“The money will go back to bringing people less lucky than Stephen a happy day when there are not too many to be found. A good mental state is very important when you are sick and for young lads to have something to look forward to, for Share a Dream to come and bring them somewhere or make them happy in some way, well I can’t say enough for them really,” Christy concluded.
A further fundraiser for Share a Dream takes place on July 31 at 2pm in Kilmaley. The family day includes a barbeque and music. To donate, visit www.mycharity.ie/event/10k_world_record_attempt/