Philip’s gruelling battle for arthritis charity

IT has been a busy few weeks for Gort-based Garda Philip Gleeson. As well as leading a group of young people to Eastern Europe as part of an exchange, he also participated in his first major sporting event in recent years.
Competing in a triathlon seemed impossible when, at 32, Philip found himself unable to get out of bed, work or play with his children because of crippling pain caused by acute inflammatory arthritis. That was five years ago, though and since then Philip, with the help of Arthritis Ireland, has fought continuously to regain what the condition threatened to rob him of. “In the years after I was diagnosed, I got a huge amount of help from Arthritis Ireland,” he told The Clare Champion.
It was this help that led to Philip taking part in triAthlone at the weekend and raising money for the charity, which tries to improve the quality of life of people affected by arthritis through education and support programmes.
Philip arrived back in Ireland last week, after spending 10 days at a conference in Estonia. Four days after getting off the plane he began his next journey, the toughest since he was diagnosed with arthritis.
Since February, Philip had been under a strict medical diet and exercise regime that had him fit and ready for the challenge. His only concern was that his arthritis would hold him back because it gets worse in June, July and August each year with warmer weather.
“I was one of the last competitors to begin the race and I was really looking forward to it. I was competing against my two younger brothers, Oli and Colm Gleeson. Both had been training hard so that their older arthritic brother wouldn’t beat them. They are younger than me so they set off earlier in different waves of competitors. There were around 2,500 people taking part,” he recalled.
While Oli entered the sprint distance, Philip and Colm opted for the shorter Try a Tri event. Philip wasn’t far from the start when he got into some unexpected difficulty.
“Just before I entered the water I got my dad to fasten up my wetsuit at the back of my neck. It all seemed very snug fitting and happy with that, I took to the water and waited for the klaxon to begin the race down the Shannon towards the Athlone town centre. I was always a fairly strong swimmer so when the klaxon went off I took off strongly. About halfway down the course I was in fourth place in my group when I realised something was wrong. The fastening on my wetsuit was choking me and slowly it was becoming more and more difficult to breathe,” Philip remembered.
“I raised my hand and called one of the rescue boats. They quickly realised the problem and tried to loosen the velcro but they knew if they helped me too much in the water that I would be disqualified from the race. I eventually managed to get the velcro undone and breathe again. I took a huge breath and took off for the finish of the swim. After my escapade, I finished a good way back down the field,” he revealed.
“Happy to be out of the water I ran up into the army barracks to change into cycling gear and get on my bike for a 20km cycle. Conditions were perfect and the course was fairly level. My only problem was that my throat seemed to have swollen during the swim and I couldn’t drink any fluids and breathing was still a bit strained. By the 10km mark it seemed to settle and I clocked a really good time back to the barracks, where I pulled on the runners and took to the streets of Athlone for a 5km run,” Philip continued.
“This is the bit I always dislike. I’ve never been a runner and turning out the gate at the start of the race I tweaked something in my back. I couldn’t believe it, after the incident in the river I thought things couldn’t get worse.  Every time I put my left leg on the ground, I got a pain up my spine,” he remembered.
“To cut a long story short, I kept going and with the help of a huge cheering crowd, family and friends, I made it around the course. I was so delighted to be able to partake in this event and knowing how many people in Ireland with arthritis would have loved to be in my shoes, I pushed myself on for them,” the Dublin man explained.
Philip and his brothers got sponsorship for the event to benefit Arthritis Ireland. “Even though the website wasn’t working last week, we still raised hundreds of euro. The online fundraising website is now back working again and sponsorship can be donated there. Needless to say, I didn’t beat the two brothers in the triathlon but there’s always next year,” he stated.
Just before his gruelling experience in triAthlone, Philip led a group of six people, aged between 15 and 25, for a youth exchange for people with rheumatism and related diseases. The theme of the exchange was international possibilities for young people and involved participants from Finland, Estonia, Sweden, Macedonia, Serbia, Greece, Italy and Slovakia.
“There was a huge mix of people from all over Europe with a huge diversity of disabilities. One of the projects we did there over the eight days was a huge media event that covered the theme of how to make society more tolerant towards special needs. This took place in a large shopping mall in Tallinn and was very well received. Funnily enough, a game of wheelchair ground hurling went down very well, as some of the Irish team had brought sliotars and hurleys,” he recalled.
Philip also led a flash mob on his bodhrán, attracting a lot of interest. “None of the locals would have ever seen or heard a bodhrán in real life, though most were able to remember Riverdance, as they are all huge fans of the Eurovision. They joked that they would definitely give Ireland 12 points next year.”
“The media showed a lot of interest in the event and the local Estonian rheumatism association was very happy with how it went. I spent 10 days in Estonia and the whole exchange was a huge success. All the lessons learnt and information gathered will be fed back into the national youth strategy of Arthritis Ireland,” he explained.
To sponsor Philip and donate money to Arthritis Ireland, log onto http://sponsorme.arthritisireland.ie/event/waterways-ireland-tri-athlone/mcgleeson/