Freewheeling to a close

Denn woman raises over €300,000 for charity.

A Denn woman who raised over €300,000 for charity by running an annual cycle from Westport to Ballinagh for over a decade has decided to call a halt to the event but insists she is extremely proud of what it has achieved.

Anne Marie McPhilips cites reasons such as increased workload associated with organising the cycle as reasons for stepping away from the event.

“We’ve organised it every year since 2011, with the exception of 2020 and 2021 when we couldn’t do it due to Covid. We only have a small committee. My aim was to do it for 10 years and move on, if somebody else wants to take it over, that’s fine, but we just felt we have done our chore.”

One of the main difficulties in organising the event has been administration issues to do with insurance and documentation.

“It’s becoming increasingly challenging to organise insurance and fill out the documentation for Cycle Ireland, such as a risk assessment which I understand has to be done, but still takes a long time. The event takes place in June, but we start organising it in February and don’t present the cheques until the end of October because it takes until then to sort out sponsorship.”

Anne Marie also says the likelihood of an incident happening on the road has also increased.

“It’s a long cycle from Westport back to Cavan and we just feel that the risk of trying to get 60 or 70 people back home can be very stressful. All cyclists are very good and know the rules of the road but it’s getting increasingly dangerous out there and the risk of an incident happening is much higher.”

Despite it being the last time to hold the event Anne Marie said she is delighted with how it played out and it was the biggest amount they ever raised.

“We raised €40,000 this year which was the most we ever made. In total, we’ve raised €302,000. We give money to different units of Crumlin Hospital every year, so this year we’re giving it to their renal unit, as well as Cystic Fibrosis, Cavan Branch of Alzheimer’s and The Holy Family School in Cootehill”.

She also paid tribute to the cyclists and volunteers who made the event happen.

“It’s a big team effort, the cyclists have a minimum target of €200 to raise but some of them get €2,000. We have a maintenance crew that came with us, the Red Cross, as well as people who work on getting Ballinagh ready for the return and the Gardaí who all help out.”