Epic journey for Parteen student

Parteen medical student Cóilín Collins Smyth arrived back from Vietnam last Thursday after he completed a 5,000km cycle, which took him from Shanghai, China to Ho Chi Min in Vietnam over a three-month period.

The 23-year-old embarked on the challenge with two of his college friends John Gaffney and Sean Blank, both from Galway, in aid of the Jack and Jill Foundation, Laura Lynn Children’s Hospice and the Christina Noble Children’s Foundation.
Cóilín said it was a tough trek but that he is delighted to have finished it.
“The last bike I had would have had stabilisers on it, so I hadn’t a lot of interest in cycling before I did this. I’d been lucky enough to get away on a J1 and backpacking and my brother had done a long distance cycle and told me how much he enjoyed it. One of the lads from college, John Gaffney, and I got chatting about maybe doing something similar and by September committed to it,” he said.
The trio were then looking for the right charities to do the cycle and initially they were going to do it in aid of two charities, one from home and another in one of the countries they were cycling through. With this in mind, they decided to go with Christina Noble Children’s Foundation in Ho Chi Min City and, given that Christina herself is Irish, they felt it was worthwhile. They concluded their cycle at the foundation and were delighted to do see the good work they do.
They had also decided on the Laura Lynn Children’s Hospice because they were touched by her story. The Jack and Jill foundation was added to their list of charities, however after a friend died who had an involvement with the charity.
“It took a year of planning we mainly focused on the fundraising side of things and then for the last two months we concentrated on the route. India was our other option but because of the monsoons that didn’t work but as it turned out we ended up in a flood situation,” he explained.
The trio were prepared for avoiding serious danger and having found themselves in the heart of the provinces in China that were devastated by flooding, they were lucky that they evaded the worst of it.
“We woke up one morning and the news had just broken on it and we were hearing that we were smack in the centre of it in Jiangxi province. They had forecasted that the floods would affect the Hunan province where we were going to and that it was supposed to get really bad afterwards. We just started ringing ahead to hostels and hotels to if they were flooded. On our most nervous day the sun came out and so we were able to carry on. We took a risk but thankfully it worked out and our ignorance was our blessing and got us through it,” he added.
Although the trip brought many adventures and opened the eyes of the three Irish students to new cultures and countries, Cóilín suffered from heat exhaustion during the trip and following a brief trip to the hospital was told to rest up and re-hydrate.
“Probably the most shocking things for us was China and whether we had made the right choice going there. But we couldn’t get over how different the culture was. The people were incredible; they had no English but they were incredibly kind and if you were lost they really went out of their way to help you, that was the best surprise,” Cóilín revealed.
The Parteen man has not ruled out continuing his charity challenge efforts although he said he would be slow to undertake a cycle of that magnitude again.
“I’m not sure I’d do a cycle again but I would like to do the same idea again just a challenge. It offers a great opportunity to raise funds for incredible charities and enables you to travel while doing so,” he concluded.