Tickled pink for cancer research

A LOCAL quilter has put a friendship quilt, the fruits of over 100 hours of painstaking labour, up for auction on Facebook to raise money for the Killaloe Pink Ribbon Walk, which takes place on Sunday.

Alison Power, who lives in Ballina, Killaloe, is making a series of 49 quilts in all shapes and sizes and plans to sell them to raise money for cancer research and the Marymount Hospice in Cork.

Alison lost one of her best friends to cancer last January and decided to make a series of what she calls friendship quilts. Each quilt contains fabric from her friends so Alison says she is stitching memories of friends, old and new. Her hope is her friendship quilt will find a home and becomes part of creating happy memories.

Donating her first quilt to the Killaloe Pink Ribbon Walk, the organisers have placed it up for auction on Facebook. The quilt, called Labyrinth, has been hung in the window of the old Siopa Beog, Main Street, Killaloe.
Over 400 walkers and runners have already registered for the Pink Ribbon Walk, which takes place from the Lakeside Hotel, Ballina on Sunday at 2.30pm. Another 100 are expected to register over the coming days.

In total, €215,000 has been raised for Action Breast Cancer over the last three years.
Local organiser Nicola Wood said the organising committee are truly humbled when they see ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

As the countdown continues to the walk, organisers are collecting pink material to make bunting for the bridge linking Ballina and Killaloe.
The 10km walk will follow the same course as the past three years, beginning at the Lakeside Hotel, crossing the famous Killaloe Bridge and onto the Garraunboy Loop, known locally as ‘the round’.

Under the leadership of Carmel de Mello, the motivational warm-up will begin on the lawns of the Lakeside Hotel at 2pm. The walk should take two and a half hours, which should suit walkers with an average level of fitness. There will be plenty of water on route, as well as a few treats.
Everyone who completes the course will be presented with a medal. There will be an afternoon of entertainment, with food and music on the grounds of the Lakeside Hotel after the walk.