Tag Archives: Marathon Des Sables

SHANNON’S Matthew Halpin completed the Marathon des Sables last week, a 250km six day ultra marathon through the Sahara. He signed up to honour the memory of his friend Kevin Hayes, who died as a result of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome, and he used the opportunity to raise funds for Heart House, a free family heart screening clinic at the Mater Hospital. Covering 250km of the Sahara is not easy and Matthew said he had suffered in the sun. “It was pretty tough, yeah. I got a fever on the second day and I had to slow down on the third day to get through. On day four, which was a long day, it was 52 or 53 degrees. I think it was 45 in the shade.” Despite the obvious difficulties, he says it was well worth doing. “I’m happy that I was able to do it, it raised a nice bit of money for the charity which was good. …

A SHANNON man is preparing for the toughest foot race in the world through the Sahara Desert to raise awareness and funds for sudden adult death syndrome treatment. Matthew Halpin will take on the six-day, 250km Marathon Des Sables through the famous desert where he will potentially face 50 degree temperatures. It’s happening in April and Matthew is doing it to commemorate his late friend Kevin Hayes, and to raise funds for Heart House, which is a free family heart screening clinic at the Mater in Dublin.  Thirty-two years of age, Matthew now works for MeiraGTx and moved back to Shannon last October after a decade in Cork.  Speaking about his late friend Kevin, he says, “I was in college with him in UL, I did industrial chemistry, he did industrial biochemistry. In UL you go on work placement in third year and we were both placed in Eli Lily in Cork, we lived together down there. We really bonded …