Sailors to battle cancer and the high seas

Two Co Limerick sailors both fighting cancer are taking to the high seas to help raise their own spirits and help save lives on land and offshore.

Retired farmer Dave Bevan, from Bruff (pictured), and postman Chris Egan, from Rathkeale, will spend over a month sailing around the Irish coast to raise money for the Irish Cancer Society and the Irish National Lifeboat Association.

And they will have to interrupt their 1,200 nautical mile journey to keep up to speed with their respective treatments at hospitals in Cork and Limerick.

Dave is fighting cancer of the colon and Chris is being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Dave is undergoing chemotherapy treatment at the Mercy Hospital in Cork, where he also had surgery, and Chris’s recovery is being managed at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital in Limerick.

The members of Foynes Yacht Club plan to call to 30 harbours and coastal ports on their round-Ireland journey and cover about 40 nautical miles each day in their 30ft yacht, Inizi.

Dave, 63, said: “Chris, who had been diagnosed with cancer, asked me at the club if I would go on a round-the-coast [trip] to raise funds for cancer and the lifeboat association. My wife Ann had been treated for breast cancer, and I said of course. I did not realise then that I also had cancer, which was diagnosed last November.”

They plan to start their journey on May 4-5 at the Limerick River Festival.

Dave said: “But I am due in Cork the following few days for chemotherapy so we will resume in Foynes on May 10 when we plan to set sail for the Aran Islands, which is our first destination.”

He added: “We will both have our medication with us. It’s difficult to say with any precision how long it will take us to complete the journey around the entire island of Ireland as much will depend on the weather. We will also have to come ashore to undergo treatment at certain times.”