Two doctors at Craigavon Area Hospital have raised almost £2,000 for Alzheimer’s Research after completing the Mourne Wall Challenge last weekend.
Dr Eamon McCarron and Dr Peter Sharpe completed the challenge on Saturday (June 22) in memory of Peter’s dad Robert Sharpe, or Bob as he was known, who died on January 31, this year.
The Mourne Wall Challenge consists of hiking 21 miles of the Mourne Wall as it traverses 14 mountain summits with a total ascent of almost 10,000ft.
The duo, who are both specialists in cholesterol and diabetes, completed the challenge in just under 15 hours.
Assisted by Mourne Mountain Adventures, Eamon and Peter managed to complete their challenge with “no hiccups at all”.
They set up a JustGiving page in advance of their hike, which has raised just over £1,800. They hope to raise more before closing.
Explained Eamon: “Peter’s father recently died with Alzheimer’s at the start of the year and he wanted to do something in memory of him.
“We decided to turn it into something even more positive by trying to generate some money for Alzheimer’s Research UK.”
He continued: “Being from a research background myself, I know how important generating money for these charities is because I’ve benefitted from charitable funding and research before.”
Eamon says that he can’t believe the support that’s been offered to the fundraiser.
“We never realised how much money we would get. People are very generous and I think it’s because dementia itself is quite an emotive thing for people and you’d be hard pressed to find a family that hasn’t been touched by a diagnosis.
“For both of us, I’m always in awe of people who care for or look after loved ones with dementia because it is a terrible diagnosis. We both felt quite passionately that we wanted to do something positive and fund important research.”
He added: “I know for Peter it was huge, because of his father and because my granny died with dementia too.
“We just know how important it is for charitable funding. As a researcher you rely on societies like this to be able to support your research and it was a really positive thing to do.
“It’s my first time generating so much for charity and I’ll definitely be looking into doing things like this in the future!”
You can donate to Eamon and Peter’s appeal by visiting their JustGiving page here.
