Mayo riders to cycle 6,500km in aid of Castlebar Paediatric Unit

In just over two weeks time, 13 cyclists from Castlebar and Westport will undertake a gruelling 500km challenge to raise money for the Castlebar Paediatric Unit.

All of the proceeds from the inaugural Giro d’Mayo 500 fundraising event will go directly to the Paediatric Unit at Mayo University Hospital. 

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“We're going to suffer”, one of the organisers, Sean Heraty, tells The Mayo News.

“But the kids in the hospital could be weeks, months in the hospital suffering. So we're going to suffer for three days.”

The other riders who will be suffering from September 11 to September 13 are Richie Needham, Dave O’Malley, Francis Brogan, Tom Malone, Adrian Gallagher, John Brennan, David Brennan, Dave Walshe, Brian Kennedy, Graine Kennedy, Caroline Keogh and Walter Lyons.

Before a single foot has been put on the pedal, the team has already fundraised over €20,000. 

The peloton will cycle together, and Richie Needham, another of the organisers, explains that although people often think of cycling as an individual sport, “we stick together, help each other out. If anyone's struggling, we put them at the back and we take them along. If anyone's feeling good, they go to the front.”

They’ll need to stick together as they will be cycling the equivalent of a Tour de France stage on each of the first two days. The cyclists will also be accompanied by a lead car and a support crew. A van will carry spare tires, tubes, bags for overnight and phone chargers, as well as the essentials like energy gels, Jaffa cakes and Mars bars.

The first day will start at the TF in Castlebar before stops in Louisburgh, Leenane and Ballinrobe. The day’s 172km cycle will finish back at the TF Royal. 

The second day will start with a coffee morning organised by The Creel in Castlebar.

From there, the riders will pedal to Swinford, Ballycastle, Healy F. Station Barnatra before finishing the 171km cycle in Belmullet. 

The final day of the 500km cycle will see the riders leave the Broadheaven hotel in Belmullet before heading back through Mulranny and stopping in Westport. 

They plan to arrive in Westport on Saturday, 13 September, at around 2 pm for a spinathon outside the Jester pub on Bridge Street. 

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The final leg of the cycle will see the riders finish at Mayo University Hospital.

It is a fitting finish line as the purpose of the fundraising endeavour, as one man put it to Sean, is to “try and make a home out of a hospital.”

Cole’s diagnosis 

In 2019, Richie Needham and his wife were due to celebrate their first wedding anniversary when their then five-month-old son, Cole, had a seizure. 

They didn’t know it at the time, but Cole would later be diagnosed as having a very rare and severe form of epilepsy called PCDH19. 

“We were so naive, you know, thinking that this was going to be a quick fix”, recalls Richie. 

The reality is that his now six-year-old son regularly gets clusters of seizures that require medical intervention. 

“So as you can imagine, the amount of time we spend in the MUH is crazy.”

“The amount of support we get from the Paeds Ward, from the doctors, the nurses and the staff is phenomenal. Our lives would be very different without it.”

Having seen first hand the brilliant work that the Paediatric Unit does, Richie thought, “Jesus, surely we can do something to give something back.”

Giro d’Mayo 500 

With that idea in mind, he spoke with his friend Sean Heraty, and the Giro d’Mayo 500 began.

Starting the fundraising event from scratch wasn’t easy, and they quickly formed a committee with Francis Brogan and David O'Malley. Tom Malone also came on board and helped with the social media side of things.

Both Richie and Sean stress that this has been a huge team effort to get this event off the ground. They are especially grateful to the sponsors who got on board in the early days. 

“This was a hard sell. This was a difficult sell because we were selling an event that hadn't happened yet. The guys who came on board early definitely deserve kudos for backing it early days.”

They are also grateful to Brendan Maloney and his colleagues at Skillko are competing in this year’s Sea2Summit and donating the funds raised to the Giro d’Mayo 500. 

This will be the inaugural Giro d’Mayo 500, but it may become an annual event, so watch this space! 

They are having a launch party on Saturday, 30 August, at the Quays Pub in Westport. 

Follow their journey on their Instagram page and to donate, please go to their gofundme page.