Following the death of Father Tony Coote, Chief Executive of the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Roisin Duffy said, “From the moment he was diagnosed, Father Tony Coote not only bore his illness with tremendous dignity, he also became a tireless advocate for everyone living with MND. His decision to travel 550 kilometres from Donegal to Cork last year was testament to his resilience and determination. The €600,000 raised is already making a real impact on Ireland’s MND community. On September 14th, that community will again “Walk While You Can” in Father Tony’s memory, as he would have wanted. To Father Tony’s family and wide circle of friends, we at the IMNDA offer our deepest sympathies at this difficult time. We pledge to honour his memory, and continue to support his vision for a world free of MND.”

Click here to donate in Fr. Tony’s memory.

Roisin Duffy and Fr. Tony Coote

Shane Maguire is following in Fr Tony’s footsteps and taking on a massive challenge to help raise awareness and funds for MND. Shane is currently cycling ACROSS AMERICA! This is over 5000km and here is why:

Cycling across America was a challenge that I always wanted to take on some day. I’ve always been drawn to the big sky landscape, and to the contrasting terrain of the dry, mountainous west to the more fertile, farmland of the Mid-West and East.
Back in 2012, I remember watching Colm Murray’s documentary MND, The Inside Track…..and like so many people across the country I remember being in complete awe of Colm’s determination, courage and dignity in the face of unimaginable inner turmoil and suffering as he confronted the realities of living with Motor Neurone Disease.

Fr. Tony Coote’s Walk While You Can campaign last year really has helped place MND back into the public consciousness and it just highlighted how grossly underfunded Motor Neurone Disease is in this country and the financial burden it places on families. The IMNDA rely on public donations for over 83% of their funding and we seem to be lagging behind other countries of similar size such as Scotland who currently have 16 full time MND nurses compared to four in Ireland.

The extraordinary example of people like Com Murray, Fr. Tony and others succeeded to stir something in me to get outside my comfort zone and do what I can while I can.

To support Shane and his incredible challenge please see his idonate page: https://www.idonate.ie/fundraiser/11378133_cycle-across-america-2019-for-imnda.html