Dermot nearing the finish line
A Belfast-based writer who has spent six weeks walking the 625-mile length of the '˜Ireland Way' is due to finish his epic trek in Co Antrim tomorrow.
Dermot Breen, 57, took on the gruelling challenge in memory of his late wife, Jacqui, who passed away in January 2015 after a battle with ovarian cancer.
The Omagh-born father-of-two is hoping his efforts will raise £7,500 for Cancer Research UK.
Dermot set off from Castletownbere in Co Cork on June 20. He will finish his walk at Jacqui’s graveside at Ramoan Parish Church in Ballycastle.
“Ballycastle is a very special place for me and it will be highly fitting, and perhaps a little emotional, to end my walk there,” he said.
The walk has taken the retired civil servant a total of nine weeks – six weeks trekking and three weeks recovering from a torn calf muscle he sustained while trying to get away from a herd of cattle.
The ‘Ireland Way’ trek isn’t Dermot’s first long distance challenge. He has previously taken on two other epic walks in memory of Jacqui.
In 2015 he walked the entire Ulster Way and in 2016 he completed the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain.
Dermot has raised nearly £40k for Cancer Research UK.
Anyone who would like to donate can do so online at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/1000k4j