A Middletown woman is planning a very personal and poignant pilgrimage as she prepares to walk the Camino de Santiago in memory of her mum.
And Conchita Monahan is using the experience to give something back to Evora Hospice for the exceptional care and compassion shown in her mother’s last days.
Mary Monahan was 79 years of age when she sadly passed away on February 17, 2024.
The loss left the family heartbroken, but at the same time filled Conchita with a desire to do something to help the Hospice continue to provide care to others in her Mummy’s name.
She told Armagh I how their world had been turned upside down after a shock diagnosis late in 2023.
“We had been back and forth to the doctors a few times,” Conchita explained. “ They thought she just had a blockage in her ear and to use drops but it never got better. Then finally we were sent to Craigavon. They were thinking it was blocked with wax, but when they cleared her ears out they found a lump, a tumour, in there, and then whenever they did their biopsy, it came back that, yes, it was cancer.
“Mummy passed away on the 17th of February, 2024. She had been diagnosed around Christmas time with cancer in her ear, which would have been a bit on the rare side, they said. There would be no cure for it, no operation or anything like that. She was too old and she would have been very frail as well.
“After a wee bit, we had bits of issues doing her medication. They were wanting us to give her morphine and all the rest, but it kind of was a wee bit much, really, at the end of the day at home for us, to give it to her.
“We discussed it with the Macmillan Nurses and they said about maybe getting Mummy into the Hospice, even like a wee respite, going over her medication, all that kind of thing. She went in on the Monday. She was only supposed to be there for two or three weeks. They were going to have her down to try chemo, although we didn’t think she would be fit for chemo.
“She was in there just over two-and-a-half weeks and she took a wee turn, it must have been a wee stroke and that was it.
“So she spent her last two-and-a-half, just under three weeks, in the Hospice, but she loved it. She was just so happy and content in there.”
The family had always been great supporters of the Hospice. Mum Mary too had been keen to help where she could, not knowing that she, like so many others, would one day be in need of that care and support.
“Mummy always loved the Hospice. Even when we’d be out and about shopping, she wouldn’t have walked past any collections,” said Conchita. “She always would have given them money. She seemed to always have a great faith in them, that they do so much good.
“Whenever I was with her in there then, she said, ‘You’re going to have to get them some money or give them some money’, and I said, ‘Mummy, don’t worry about that’. I said some way or another there’ll be money raised for the Hospice to give back to them.
“Even before the Hospice, I’d say somewhere down the line after Covid, I happened to see the Camino advertised and I thought I’d love to do something like that. But I thought to myself I have to do it for a reason. I didn’t know back then but I thought somewhere down the line there’d be a reason for it.
“Then Mummy was in the Hospice and I saw it advertised in the Hospice for that year and I thought, there you go, that’s why I’m doing it. Last year we looked into it and I signed up to do it.”
And having signed up, Conchita is fully determined to go the distance.
The mum-of-four took to walking during Covid, then power-walking, and is now just “continuously walking whenever I can” in preparation.
And she and her family have been actively fundraising.
They have already witnessed first hand the love which the good folk of Armagh have for Evora Hospice, having amassed between £7,000 and £8,000 through previous ventures to date.
“ I have done quite a few things,” said Conchita. “I did a big collection day in Armagh in November. We had a brilliant day with that. My kids got involved with it, friends, anybody I could grab to help us that day. It was a bucket collection all around Armagh and we had a fantastic day. I couldn’t believe it. It was mind-blowing what people were giving me.
“I was doing over at Spires and what people were giving me into my bucket, at one point I was walking up and down the road with tears in my eyes thinking this is unbelievable. It was because I knew people, a lot of people have a good belief in the Hospice. It was just mind-blowing.
“I was thinking will we do good or what way will we do? Will we get a few pounds or whatever? We thought if we got £1,500 or £2,000 that day alone, we’d be doing good. We actually got double that and more. I was just like, wow. We sat that night in the kitchen here, giving it a rough count. Even my children came in, standing looking, going, ‘Wow, Mummy, look at that’.
“They knew who they were doing it for and they had been kind of wary of doing it, but once they got into it and seeing what people were giving them it was such a buzz. People even said, ‘thank-you for doing it’. It was unbelievable.”
Conchita had also previously held another bucket collection at Home Bargains in Armagh, where she works. She has distributed collections boxes to other places too, as well as sponsor sheets.
When she approached Curves in Armagh, where she is a member, with a view to placing sponsor sheets, she was delighted when they suggested holding a coffee morning to further help her in her goal. It will take place on Thursday, March 26, and all proceeds will go towards Conchita’s fundraising efforts for Évora Hospice.
With so much happening and eyes now focussed firmly on May’s Camino, the Middletown woman is eager to get going.
For she knows it will make a difference to other families who, during the most difficult days of their lives, will come to rely on the care provided by the Evora team.
“This is a first time for me,” added Conchita. “Me and my partner were going to do it together initially, but then to raise the funds for the Hospice, individually it was £3,000 each and we kind of thought at the time, gosh, it’s a lot of money to raise. He asked, ‘Would you go on your own?’. Straight away, I goes, ‘No. I couldn’t do it on my own. No’.
“But then I sat and thought about it and I thought, well it’s for my Mummy, and I thought, you know what? I will do it. I had to pick up the courage, not just doing it for Mummy, but doing it for myself, to say it is something I’ve achieved on my own.
“I’ve actually gone way over my money so far, so now my aim is just to get as much as I can at the end of the day.”
If you would like to support Conchita in her Camino walk for Évora Hospice, you can do so by visiting the JustGiving page here.
