TWO West Belfast sporting clubs combined forces last weekend for a fantastic and successful cycling fundraising event in aid of a young girl, Ciarla Herron, who has suffered from cerebral palsy since her first birthday.<\/p>\n
Four fundraising events took place from a \u2018cyclathon\u2019 in both the Park Centre and the Kennedy Centre, plus a hugely successful event back in June where the Glendale Imps and the L\u00e1mh Dhearg FUNdamentals squads all came together for a brilliant fundraising event at the home of the GAA club in Hannahstown.<\/p>\n
The reason behind the funding is to help Ciarla journey to London where she will undergo state-of-the-art rehabilitation to help develop her walking abilities during her early childhood development.<\/p>\n
The fundraising named \u2018Ciara\u2019s Next Steps\u2019 has seen over \u00a321,000 raised as the Herron family hope to raise their \u00a350,000 target which will help a determined little girl access vital therapy and specialist equipment to build strength, improve mobility, and gain independence so she can thrive every day.<\/p>\n
Ciara Doherty, a current L\u00e1mh Dhearg LGFA player and member of Glendale Cycling Club, was one of the lead organisers on the event for Ciarla\u2019s Next Steps.<\/p>\n
Ciara spoke with the Andersonstown News following their massive cycling event on the first weekend of August which saw over 120km completed in aid of Ciarla.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was honestly overwhelming in the best way,\u201d stated Ciara.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Barney Herron (Ciarla\u2019s grandfather) first approached me to be part of the \u2018think tank\u2019 behind fundraising ideas, I just thought of my own three girls.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey cycle competitively and play GAA, and as a mum you do take for granted how lucky we are to have healthy, able-bodied kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTo see over 100 people line up for the 50km and 70km cycle on the 1st of August, with all the spin cycles and kid\u2019s cycles leading up to it, for Ciarla \u2014 it felt like every pedal stroke had purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ciara also touched on how inspiring it was to see Ciarla managing to achieve and get through some very tough sessions to help develop her walking during rehab, and how it helped the participants dig deeper during the events.<\/p>\n
\u201cCiarla is such a special little girl, full of fight, and doing this for her towards achieving independent walking through her intensive sessions at NAPA in London.\u00a0It just made you want to dig that bit deeper. We love it when a plan comes together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe cycle was the big finale, but it was really the culmination of weeks of work. We had spin cycles in local shopping centres the Kennedy Centre and the Park Centre, plus the sponsored kids cycle around L\u00e1mh Dhearg\u2019s highway to health with the VC Glendale Imps joined by L\u00e1mh Dhearg’s FUNdamentals, and then the 50km and 70km cycling sportive that brought everyone together for Ciarla, it has been really special.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ciara has ties with both L\u00e1mh Dhearg and Glendale.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat was incredible was seeing both L\u00e1mh Dhearg and VC Glendale side by side and coming together for one cause, Ciarla.<\/p>\n
\u201cClub members, family, friends, local businesses \u2014 everyone turned out. Behind the scenes we had Frank Campbell, Conrad Kettlyes and Paul Buchanan putting in a massive shift to glue it all together.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe atmosphere and community-feel was just brilliant. The donations from individuals, the self-employed business owners and other businesses rolled in, for which we are very grateful to each and every person who has contributed to date with both their time and money.<\/p>\n
\u201cSporting clubs are about more than the game. They\u2019re family at L\u00e1mh Dhearg and Glendale. We see each other at training, matches, fundraisers, the lot. So, when one of our own is hurting, you just show up.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cFor Ciarla, that meant everyone dug in because we all want her to have every chance at independent walking to match her older siblings, Cushla and Cahan. Who are her biggest supporters!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of us know each other through kids\u2019 sport, through school runs, through the local area. The two clubs working together for Ciarla just made perfect sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Herron family are synonymous with both clubs also, which made the merger all the more fulfilling.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the pitch or the road, we\u2019re competitive, but off it we\u2019re neighbours. This showed that when it really matters, L\u00e1mh Dhearg and VCG can come together and be a force for good. It\u2019s been a privilege to be part of that, and I thank Ciarla\u2019s parents Conor and Tara for trusting me with the coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ciara also added her thanks to Barney, Ciarla\u2019s grandfather, and the extended Herron family for letting the team help, and to every single person who donated, turned up, spun, cycled, or shared.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To donate to Ciarla\u2019s cause and help the young girl on her journey to find her next steps check out the link Ciarla’s Next Steps \u2013 Just4Children.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TWO West Belfast sporting clubs combined forces last weekend for a fantastic and successful cycling fundraising event in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[32598,32601,32602,49,48,8515,635,44,32596,32599,32597,6987,32600,457,82],"class_list":["post-858865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-andersonstown-news","tag-andytown-news","tag-belfast-media-group","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comment","tag-cycling","tag-news","tag-news-belfast","tag-north-belfast-news","tag-north-of-ireland","tag-northern-ireland","tag-south-belfast-news","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=858865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}