Ballinasloe man plans to swim length of the Shannon – in memory of his late brother

Aiden Sheridan aims to swim the length of the 245km river next June over 14 days, which means dividing it up in sections of around 17km

It will be a huge task for the carpet fitter who often has a leisurely swim in the Loughrea Lake on a summer’s evening on his way from work in Tom Dempsey’s in Oranmore.

“I’m more of a long-distance runner to be honest,” he reflects nonchalantly.

There’s more than a little understatement in the revelation. The 43-year-old father of two ran 52 marathons in 52 weeks to raise money for Breast Cancer Ireland in 2016. Some weekends he ran two marathons to ensure he met his goal. He undertook this mammoth challenge when his sister Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer a year earlier.

Luckily she has made a full recovery. Tragically, his brother Mark was not so fortunate when he was diagnosed with cancer in late August 2017.

The 53-year-old was referred for tests after complaining of a sore hip.  Medics discovered a lump five days later and planned to send him to University Hospital Galway for treatment. But it had already spread to his chest and lung.

“It was a Friday and I was going to Kerry to do a run. I had a tracker on me so I told him to follow my progress over the mountain. I told him I’d called up to him on the Monday – it was the first day back of school after the summer holidays and I’d taken it off to bring the kids. We got a phone call to go the hospital quick as he’d taken a turn.

“I was going through the toll when I got a call to say goodbye to my brother. He died a few minutes later. He lived for three days after the diagnosis so he had no chance at all to fight it.”

The last chat the pair had, Aiden jokingly said that after running 52 marathons for Jennifer he would have to go one step bigger for Mark.

They never got the chance to talk it through. But it struck Aiden that swimming the Shannon which runs through their hometown of Ballinasloe – where the eight Sheridan siblings had never left - would pose a formidable feat worthy of their brother’s memory.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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