Over €80,000 raised to date in Paddy Fenning fundraising appeal

Just over a year ago more than 700 people gathered in the Tullamore Court Hotel for the launch night of a fundraiser instigated by the well-known former Offaly footballer Paddy Fenning.

The Tullamore man had been diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease the previous year and sadly the launch night, on February 1, 2020, has taken on an added poignancy as a result of his passing on May 15 last.

"It's great that we had that night. A lot of people went along, met Paddy, and spoke to him for what would unfortunately have been the last time," said Pat Nolan, PRO of the fundraising committee.

"Paddy got great enjoyment out of that night, especially the Q&A with Seamus Darby, Johnny Hughes, Pat O'Neill and Pauric McShea, all players that he would have played with or against back in the '70s.

"Damien Lawlor was the MC for it, and it was the centrepiece of the night. There were some great stories from all of the lads about their football careers.

"Due to Covid-19, Paddy's funeral wasn't the massive gathering that it ordinarily would have been, but in retrospect it's great to look back and say at least there was that night when he got to see so many people."

Of course, just a few weeks after that night, the pandemic took hold and made fundraising more difficult. But Paddy Fenning's target of raising €150,000 remains in place.

Over €80,000 has been collected to date and contributions have started to roll in again in recent weeks due to an upcoming relay marathon being organised by Tullamore GAA Club's footballers and hurlers, along with its ladies footballers and camogie players.

"Teams and clubs can't train collectively at the moment, so this is an initiative that helps to keep players in shape while also benefiting this cause," said Pat.

"The Tullamore players are doing their relay marathons on the weekend of March 5 to 7, and it would be great if other clubs in Offaly took on a similar initiative to get behind the cause, because Paddy was a great servant to the county."

A fundraising walk as part of the campaign is due to take place at some stage in 2021 but understandably, given the ongoing restrictions, a date hasn't been decided for it yet.

"We haven't settled on a date yet but we are 100% committed to it going ahead," said Pat.

When the fundraising campaign concludes, a third of the money will be donated for Motor Neurone Disease research; one-third of it will go to the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association's support services for people with the condition and their families; and the final third will go to local homeless causes in Offaly.

"When this fundraiser was getting off the ground, the homeless issue was all over the news on a regular basis, and it was something Paddy latched onto. With Covid-19 it's less prevalent in our news bulletins now, but it's an issue that hasn't gone away," Pat commented.

While the achievement of raising more than €80,000 to date is impressive, Pat said the committee was keen to continue working towards reaching, or even surpassing, the €150,000 goal.

"We distributed over 1,000 sponsorship cards at our launch night on February 1 last year, and the vast majority of those cards are still out there.

"People have sold a number of lines on those cards, and some cards may be full and sitting in people's drawers. So we'd like to think there's a lot of money out there that hasn't been funnelled back to us yet.

"We do have in excess of €80,000 banked, which is decent going, but we're still a long way short of where we want to be and where we will be at the end of all this."

People can contribute to a Go Fund Me page, which is one aspect of the overall fundraising effort, at: paddyfenningwalk.com