A survivor of the Manx2 plane crash is planning to cycle from Belfast to Cork to raise funds for a children’s’ cancer charity in the city that saved his life.
"I have wanted to do something to repay the people of Cork for all they did for me and my wife after the crash. And this is my way of doing it and saying ‘thank you’," Mark Dickens said last night.
Watford-based Mr Dickens, a regional security manager for a international retail chain, was one of 10 passengers on board the flight from Belfast to Cork exactly one year ago.
He was sitting near one of the wings of the Fairchild Metroliner, which crashed on its roof on its third attempt to land in thick fog. Six people died. Mark was among six to survive. He suffered seven broken ribs, a broken collar bone and shoulder blade, a punctured lung, and a torn nerve in his right arm, and spent a week recovering in Cork University Hospital.
While other survivors gather in Belfast to mark the first anniversary of the tragedy today, Mark will remember it privately with his wife, Tara, and their three children, at home.
"The past year has been OK. I still have some residual pain in one of my shoulders and in one of my hands," he said. "I also went for some counselling, which was very useful. But otherwise, I’m back to about 90% to 95% of the level of fitness I had before the crash."
A former mountain biker, Mark was advised by his doctors to take up a safer form of cycling, so he took to the road. Now, he and his brother-in-law Peter Mitchell are finalising plans for a 535km cycle from Belfast to Cork. They will raise funds for Sports Relief in England and for the Children’s Leukaemia Association in Cork.
"One of the reasons we’re doing this is because of the fantastic support my wife and I got when we were in Cork.
"From the emergency services, the gardaí, the medical staff, the Clarion Hotel where my wife stayed… they were all fantastic.
"And I picked a children's’ charity because I have three kids, and they were a big focus of my recovery."
The cycle will take them from Belfast on May 23, through Newry, Drogheda, Dublin, Arklow, and Waterford, arriving in Cork on May 26. "I normally do about 40 miles a day but on this one, we’ll do about 80 miles a day. It’ll definitely be one of the longest cycles I’ve done."
Mr Dickens has flown just once since the disaster — for a weekend in Dublin.
His employers restructured his job role which means he doesn’t have to fly for work anymore. "I don’t really travel by plane anymore. I’m not a big flyer."
* You can donate to Mark’s fundraising effort by visiting www.mycharity.ie and searching for Belfast2Cork.
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Friday, February 10, 2012
