A west Belfast man will complete 50 successive 5K walks this week in order to raise awareness for Pieta’s Darkness into Light campaign.
Ex-Antrim footballer Mickey Boyle will finish his 50th walk on Thursday evening before helping his local Lámh Dhearg club run their own Darkness into Light sunrise walk on Saturday morning.
Mickey revealed he was inspired by his clubmate and current Lámh Dhearg chairman Peter Kane to take up the challenge with the duo following in the footsteps of west Belfast stalwart Gerard Mulhern.
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Ahead of his 50th birthday in 2020, Gerard completed 50 consecutive 5k walks in support of deterMND - the charity established by Antrim legend Anto Finnegan.
Sadly, Anto lost his battle with motor neurone disease last year, but the 50-50 group continues to pound the footpaths in West Belfast as a ‘walk and talk’ community group promoting positive mental health.
It seemed only fitting that the two groups would come together when Mickey Boyle decided to take up the challenge.
“Last year Peter Kane from our club (Lámh Dhearg) completed the 50 walks to raise awareness of Darkness into Light on the back of Gerard’s walks the previous year,” explained Mickey.
“I am Lámh Dhearg’s Health and Wellbeing officer so I decided to do the 50 walks this year to raise awareness and raise some money.
“I was speaking to Gerard about two weeks before we started and he said to join in with his group. He’d continued a local walking group after his campaign. So the two groups have been walking together.”
The Lámh Dhearg club last hosted a Darkness into Light walk back in 2019, but the global pandemic forced the cancellation of the last two events.
There are two registration nights at the Lámh Dhearg clubrooms in Hannahstown on Thursday, May 5 and Friday, May 6 and a limited number of t-shirts are available on a first come first serve basis.
Mickey says the club, who run the event in conjunction with the Hannahstown Community Association, are expecting upwards of 2,000 people at Saturday morning’s sunrise walk.
“There is no doubt that mental health issues have been exacerbated by the lockdowns.” added the former Antrim Gaelic footballer.
“The last two years have been so difficult for everyone. It has been even worse for people impacted by suicide or self-harm.
“GAA clubs are part of the community and the Hannahstown Community Association approached us a few years ago and asked us to help run the Darkness into Light event.
“It happens at the club grounds and we’ve several people from our committee helping out and we’re happy to do whatever we can to help raise awareness.”
For more information on Darkness into Light or to register for Saturday's event, visit: https://www.darknessintolight.ie/register/antrim.
To donate to Mickey's fundraiser, visit: https://www.darknessintolight.ie/fundraiser/michaelboyle
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