‘Our inspiration comes from seeing the hardship these families have to go through’

An Athboy man is preparing to take on the challenge of climbing the height of Mount Everest, the world’s highest peak to raise funds for a charity that assists families battling childhood cancer in Ireland.

On 21st September, Senan Edwards and a group of 40 volunteers will set out to climb the Sugarloaf Mountain in Wicklow for the Gavin Glynn Foundation.

No stranger to arduous tasks, the keen athlete was part of a crew of five who climbed the four highest peaks in Ireland in 2019, raising €45,000 for three different charities.

This latest challenge is one in a long line of fitness events Senan has undertaken since moving to Athboy from Dublin in 2014.

He said: "Mount Everest is 8,848.86m, the elevation of the Sugarloaf is 223m, so we want to try and get a few participants together and go up 40 times to raise money for the Gavin Glynn Foundation.

"It was something I always said I wanted to do a charity challenge for. We only count going up so it’s 223m elevation but as we are going back down technically, we are doing another 223m, however, we are only counting the actual decent to make it more challenging for us all.

"This charity was something that struck a chord with me. My wife is from Sligo and a family we know there had to take advantage of the charity to help their child through their treatment so I know the amazing support they offer."

In 2019 Senan was part of a group who climbed the highest peaks in Ireland in 2019 raising a huge amount of money for vital charities.

"We climbed the four highest peaks in Ireland in 2019. We started in Carrauntoohil on 21st June at 7am, we went up came straight back in a car, went up to Mweelrea in Mayo, the highest peak in Connaught.

"We did that, took quick photograph, got back in the cars, had a quick chipper at about 4pm in afternoon and went straight over to Slieve Donard in Downpatrick and climbed that through the night.

"The sun was just rising as we were descending from Slieve Donard and the only bit of sleep we got was in between driving to the next peak. We had two drivers then we went straight down to Lugnaquilla in Wicklow, we did it in 28 hours including driving around the country.

"We raised €45,000 for Barrettstown, Make a Wish and Pieta House. I like to do something every year and last year we did one for St Vincent De Paul in Athboy. We had to run 6.5km every three hours for 48 hours.

"The inspiration you get to finish these things when you find it tough is the hardship that all of these families have to go through. Each kilometre you do you offer it up for another child that is suffering, that’s the way I look at it."