Charlie Bird: I’ll light a candle on Croagh Patrick for everyone with a terminal illness

'I will also light a candle for everyone who is in a dark place, who maybe has thought of self-harm or suicide'

Wed, 26 Jan, 2022 - 14:34

Denise O’Donoghue

Former broadcaster Charlie Bird says he hopes people across the country will climb a hill, mountain, or even the stairs in April as he attempts to reach the peak of Croagh Patrick.

Charlie, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease last year, says he will “fight as hard as I can” as long as he is able to. He is organising a national climb on april 2 to raise funds for two charities close to his heart: the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association and Pieta House.

He is encouraging the public to take part by “climbing anything” on the day.

“I want to climb Croagh Patrick on April 2. What I want other people to do if they want to support me is climb anything: a stairway, a hill. I want people all over the country on April 2 to go out and walk, climb, do anything to help the two charities that I’m fighting for,” he told the Pat Kenny Show on Newstalk.

Charlie will be joined by a close group of family and friends for his climb and he hopes to see the movement in every county.

“I want it to be spread out across the whole country. I’ll have my friends and my family with me on Croagh Patrick, we want to spread the masses, climb everywhere.”

Charlie Bird training for his upcoming charity climb in April. Picture: Maxwells Dublin

After speaking in the past about both mental and physical health, Charlie says he hopes to light candles for two groups of people while at the summit of the mountain.

“If I get to the top of Croagh Patrick, I will light a candle for every person in this country who has a terminal illness. I will also light a candle for everyone who is in a dark place, who maybe has thought of self-harm or suicide. It’s really important to me. I’m not doing this only for myself, I want to do something for everyone for the future.”

Charlie was joined on air by his wife, Claire, who says the support from the public for both the climb and for her husband has been a huge help to their family.

“Obviously we were devastated. To sit there and be told you might only have a couple of years to live, you're going to lose your voice, it's going to affect your respiratory system. We were devastated and we cried all the way home,” she said.

“We spent an awful lot of the first few months not knowing what to do. This climb has really inspired us, it's given us a new lease of life.

If you spend too much time thinking about what's happening to Charlie, you can just get into a very dark place. It has given us a new lease of life.

She said Charlie has been energised by the appeal and is keen to help as many people as possible.

“I keep saying Charlie’s like a Duracell bunny at the moment. He's taking this climb up Croagh Patrick to heart and he really wants to help everyone. It's not just for himself. He's amazing. I'm so proud of him. All our family, our friends, everyone is giving us so much support. It means so much to us. We have a huge and wonderful team of people around us that are helping us and we can't say enough. Thank you to everyone.”

And as for his plans after the climb, Charlie is already considering a second climb the very next day.

“He already has decided that he might climb it a second time. Everyone else is doing it once but he might try it again the next day as well,” Claire said.