Marathon effort is close to Paul’s heart

If Paul Daly hits the ‘wall’ during next Sunday’s London marathon, the Kilkee man won’t have to delve too deeply for the inspiration needed to galvanise his legs.

He is part of a group of about 15 athletes who will run the marathon on behalf of Crumlin Children’s Hospital in Dublin. Along with his wife Helen, he has raised more than €5,000 in aid of the hospital where their daughter Lucy received treatment for much of last year.
Six years ago Paul, who has been running since he was eight, completed the Dublin marathon on behalf of the West Clare Mini-Marathon Cancer Fund. Shin splints hindered his preparation in 2004 but he has no such issue this time. He is also driven by a more personal family motivation second time around.
“The last time I ran it with the West Clare Cancer Group. We’ve all had people that have died of cancer but this time it’s different and it’s much more closer to home. It’s because it’s for the kids and it’s personal to us,” Paul explained.
The children’s hospital in Crumlin need to net €1.8m from fundraising participants in the London and New York marathons, a triathlon in Chicago, a cycle in Italy and a walk on the Great Wall of China.
“The funding from the overseas runs this year is going towards a bone marrow transplant machine and two cardiac machines,” Paul said.
“They said that the Government won’t fund this because they are supposed to build one big children’s hospital in Dublin in five years’ time. But they’re saying in Crumlin that in five years look how many kids will have missed out and could die because they are not getting the treatment,” he added.
Paul’s wife Helen says that first-hand experience of what facilities are under threat in Crumlin has driven Paul on.
“They were talking about wards closing and they don’t have the facilities and they’re not getting the funding. When you’re up there as often as we were you see kids sicker than Lucy and they need equipment. If you can give anything back at all, it’s a great way to do it. Especially when he loves the running and they are really looking for people to do the marathon,” she noted.
Helen (McNamara) who is from Moveen, Carrigaholt, said that seeing sick children in Crumlin would inspire people capable of fundraising to do their bit.
“When you’re down here in the house you think you’re on your own but when you’re up there you open your eyes. You think you’re bad but there are so many people a hundred times worse off. When you’re up there and you see the amount of kids going around with ailments, it’d break your heart. When you leave it you go back to your own way of living and you don’t think about it. Then when you go back up there again you realise there’s so much that needs to be done. I suppose that’s what is driving him really,” she explained.
Paul, who runs with St John’s Athletic Club in Kilkee, has put the miles in at Lees Road in Ennis and is confident that he is well prepared for Sunday.
“I started building the miles up slowly. I went from 20, 30 to 40 miles a week and I peaked at 70 miles a week. I’ve been coming down now in the last two weeks. I think I did 54 miles last weekend. This week now I’ll do about 20,” he said.
Sometimes, Paul heads for a run before going to work or after coming home to Clarecastle from a night shift.
“I’d get up before I go on the night shift and go for a run. Or on the Sunday morning I’d come home from the night shift, I’d head out, run for maybe two or three hours, go to bed and go back into work that night,” is how he described his preparatory work.
Paul drinks water non-stop to keep himself hydrated and this week is loading himself with pasta.
“Brown bread and ham,” is what Helen says she prefers to feed her husband with as he prepares to head for London.
Paul was due to fly to London on Saturday but with air travel uncertain this week, the Crumlin hospital group might have to leave Dublin by bus on Friday evening, arriving just before the race start time on Sunday.
Helen has a unique transport solution if the Icelandic volcano is still spewing lava come the weekend.
“He’s going swimming. He’s learned how to swim. He’s training for the Kilkee triathlon,” she joked.
As for the fundraising side of it, both are keen to stress that they appreciate the contributions made by their family and friends.
“It shows how good people are. Friends of the family and people we don’t even know have been so good,” Helen said.
Although hopeful that they won’t have to visit Crumlin as often with Lucy, the hospital and the people they have met there have impinged upon their consciousness.
“You see a lot of broken-hearted families leaving the hospital without their children. When we go for an appointment and we’re up there for one or two days and leaving with Lucy, that’s a happy day. You see parents that don’t leave with their child, which is terrible. It would melt anybody’s heart,” Helen reflected.
Parents of sick children have made as deep an impression on Paul.
“The amount of parents we met up there, total strangers that would talk to you at ease. They’re all in the same boat although their kids have different conditions and different problems. How they talk to you so easily is unbelievable,” he revealed.
In London on Sunday, Paul will have plenty of motivation to complete the 26-mile trek through the city, with images of Lucy and children in Crumlin hospital helping him to keep the legs pumping.