Mick Quinn's Back Garden Marathon
The onset of COVID-19 and the ongoing pandemic caused the postponement and cancellation of some of our much-loved fundraising events. However, every cloud has a silver lining, and the pandemic and restrictions it brought proved no obstacle for some of our brilliant fundraisers who came up with innovative and clever ways to fundraise for MS Ireland. We have been blown away by the creativity and determination of our supporters who thought of new ways to raise vital funds for MS Ireland.
Mick Quinn has long been a supporter for MS Ireland and famously with his brothers, Frank, Sean and Brian completed the New York Marathon in 2015 raising a whopping amount for the9,00 people in Ireland living with MS. They completed the marathon 35 years after they made history by being the first 4 brothers to complete the marathon in 1980.
Sadly, Mick's brother Frank passed away in April 2020 He was a big supporter of MS Ireland and raised tens of thousands of euro for the charity. Mick describes how a letter of condolences inspired him to take up a new challenger "I got a letter from the CEO of MS Ireland paying her respects to Frank and thanking him and the Quinn family for the enormous contribution made to the charity over the years. It was a poignant letter and after reading it I said to myself "maybe NOW is the
time to do another marathon for MS Ireland and to honour Frank's footsteps” And that is exactly what Mick did.
While living under COVID-19 restrictions, it was not possible for Mick to complete a regular marathon of 26 miles on the open road, instead, Mick thought closer to home, and took on the challenge of 26 miles from his own back garden!
Supported by his friends, family and the MS community, Mick completed 26 miles in his very own back garden over the May bank holiday weekend 2020. Mick's amazing efforts raised over €40,000 for MS Ireland which will go along way to providing supports and vital services for the MS community in this challenging time.