Woman raises €100k for Chernobyl children with 2,500km cycle

Some of the children who will benefit from Pam Norris' heroic fundraising efforts. 

A fit and fearless pensioner has been honoured for using her 70th birthday to raise €100,000 for life-saving cardiac surgery on children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

Chernboyl crusader, Adi Roche, paid tribute to Pam Norris for raising the staggering sum through her 2,500km cycle along the Wild Atlantic Way.

Ms Norris, from Kinsale, set out in April 2015, around the time of her 70th birthday, to cycle from her home, into West Cork, and up along the western seaboard to Donegal, to help raise funds Chernobyl Children International’s (CCI) cardiac surgery programme which repairs the ‘Chernobyl Heart’ congenital heart defect.

Pam raised money through sponsorship from individuals and companies, along with raffles and auctions.

Adi Roche thanks Pam Norris for her remarkable fundraising cycle along the Wild Atlantic Way which raised €100,000 for cardiac surgery on children in the Chernobyl affected regions.

The final donations to bring the fundraising over the €100,000 mark arrived earlier this year, but due to Covid-19 restrictions, but CCI’s voluntary CEO, Adi Roche, could not honour Ms Norris until now.

“Pam is a shining example of real compassion, commitment, and dedication. She leaves an enduring legacy and shows us all that age is no deterrent and one person can truly make a difference,” she said.

Ms Norris, who was the leader of CCI’s Kinsale Outreach Group for many years, has always loved cycling and being outdoors, swimming and walking her dog daily, but admitted she was daunted by the scale of this fundraising challenge.

She said she was reasonably fit before but decided to embark on the cycle but she stepped up the training intensity in the weeks before, focusing on leg-strengthening exercises.

She set off on the solo cycle on April 24, 2015 —  the 29th anniversary of the nuclear disaster — with a support vehicle trailing her, averaging between 60km-70km a day.

“I was determined to do it one way or another,” she said.

“Thinking of the children’s little faces and knowing that their lives depended on me completing this tough task was what kept me going. It was a daunting mission, but one I felt compelled to do.” 

Adi Roche thanks Pam Norris for her remarkable fundraising cycle along the Wild Atlantic Way which raised €100,000 for cardiac surgery on children in the Chernobyl affected regions.

The heart is one of the most vulnerable organs to the effects of radiation and children are still being born in the Chernobyl-affected regions with the congenital heart defect known as 'Chernobyl Heart'. Many would die within three to five years without surgery.

Every year, CCI sends a team of surgeons to Ukraine to perform surgery on babies and children born with the defect. They have operated on and saved the lives of more than 4,000 children in Belarus and Ukraine.