Charity happy with monies raised from city marathons

BY CIARAN TIERNEY

One of Galway’s leading charities, Cancer Care West, has expressed satisfaction with the running of two road races in the city on Saturday which are expected to raise thousands of euros for the organisation.

Over 2,000 runners took part in the Galway Bay Half Marathon and 10k events, with €5 from each entry fee going to the charity while dozens of runners also undertook additional separate fundraising drives.

Participants from the UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, Holland, the USA and Australia joined local runners for the Salthill-based races, which have raised over €1.8 million for the charity since they were originally launched nine years ago.

Sharon Fitzpatrick of Cancer Care West said she was delighted with the running of the Galway Bay races. They are among the most important annual fundraising events for the organisation, which provides residential care to cancer patients who have to travel long distances to receive radiotherapy treatment in the city.

She denied claims from the organiser of a rival event – which was cancelled in August – that the organisers had not shown full transparency in terms of how much of the entry fee went to the charity.

Ms Fitzpatrick said that €5 from each entry fee of €35 (10k) or €45 (half-marathon) went directly to Cancer Care West and this was made clear to each entrant as soon as he or she registered for either of the two races.

This guaranteed her organisation a minimum of €10,000 from this year’s event, with a full field of 2,000 taking part, while entrants were also encouraged to undertake additional fundraising for Cancer Care West.

“We did run the race ourselves for a number of years, but we eventually decided to outsource the running of it three years ago,” she said. “It has always been a hugely significant fundraiser for us, but a few years ago we felt that it could no longer be run by volunteers anymore.”

She pointed out that the organisation’s residential home, Inis Aoibheann, would not have been built without funds raised via the race over the years – it had cost €4.2m to build, despite receiving capital funding of just €350,000.

Richard Donovan, organiser of the now defunct Galway City Marathon, had questioned how much of the entry fees for the two Galway Bay races had gone to the charity – but Ms Fitzpatrick said this figure had been made clear to each person who took part prior to Saturday’s event.

During the summer, a war of words raged between Mr Donovan and Galway City Council over the cancellation of the marathon which had been scheduled to take place at the end of August.

“The Galway City Marathon paid huge sums to get top international athletes to the City; it did not receive any support from the Council; it quietly donated tens of thousands of euro to charity and sponsorship of individual athletes,” said Mr Donovan.

Mr Donovan accused the Council of obstructing his plans to stage a top class event in the city each year, but Council officials and Cllr Michael Crowe (FF) accused Mr Donovan of failing to come up with an adequate Traffic Management Plan in the wake of concerns over safety issues at the inaugural 2010 event.