Woman gears up to run 12 marathons in fundraiser

Brenda Doody is a woman on a mission — the super-fit pavement pounder wants to run 12 marathons in eight months to raise funds for Cork’s Mercy Hospital.

Last May, Brenda’s husband Pat was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer after thinking that “something wasn’t right”.

The 45-year-old received both chemotherapy and radiotherapy before undergoing a 10-hour surgery to have his oesophagus removed in September.

“So far it’s all good, they got all the cancer,” said Brenda. “He got through the chemo and radiotherapy very well and we just tried to live life as normal as possible.”

Brenda said the staff at the Mercy Hospital was so amazing and helpful during this tough time that she just had to give something back.

“I really wanted to fund-raise, to say thank you for everything. They were all super, I couldn’t praise them enough. The level of care and the level of concern there was amazing, nothing was a problem,” she said.

“I just want to raise as much money as possible and I hope it turns into a significant fundraiser. I’d love to raise more than €10,000 but I don’t want to say that as a definite. But I’d love to raise more than that.”

As a health and fitness instructor, Brenda is used to 10k runs and half-marathons and thought this fundraiser deserved a bigger commitment.

Her first marathon of the year will take place next month in Tralee, followed by Connemara, Limerick, Cork, and Waterford. She plans to tackle Killarney in July, and four marathons in as many days in Donegal in August. Her challenge finishes with Dingle in September and Dublin in October.

And Pat plans to join in on the last leg of the journey, health permitting. “At the time, we were asking why did Pat get this, because he was so fit and healthy. We were told it was just bad luck really,” said Brenda.

“He’s lost a lot of weight so we’ll have to build that back up but he’s out walking again now and back playing golf. By the time Dublin comes around I’ll be running slower and he’ll be able to keep up with me.”

To get involved, go to facebook.com/mercymarathons. To make a donation, go to fundraise.mercyfundraising.ie and click on Brenda’s Mercy Marathon Challenge.