{"id":340404,"date":"2026-03-11T11:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/340404\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T11:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T11:12:10","slug":"donegal-parents-take-the-leap-for-rare-ireland-at-croke-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/340404\/","title":{"rendered":"Donegal parents take the leap for Rare Ireland at Croke Park"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Three Donegal natives abseiled down Croke Park in aid of Rare Ireland.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Laura Brady and scfe Robbie Barlow from Mountcharles and Laura McCrea from Donegal Town participated in the Leap for Rare Ireland, a charity dedicated to supporting families affected by rare diseases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The trio arrived at Croke Park before the safety brief, learning to use the ropes and equipment for the descent. Then, they walked on to the roof and Laura and Robbie went first.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9c24de99-976d-47d0-93fb-749087cc8b9d-1773224944174.jpeg\" width=\"500\" height=\"667\" caption=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t chicken out by doing it first,\u201d Laura tells DonegalLive. \u201cThe instructors were absolutely amazing. Even though it was terrifying at the start, by climbing over the metal gate, once you trusted the rope, it was actually a lovely experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were no sooner on the ground and I looked up and could see Laura flying down the rope with a big, happy smile; she absolutely loved every minute of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Laura and Robbie\u2019s son, Jason, was diagnosed with Hereditary spastic paraplegia 26 (HSP 26), a complex and rare neurodegenerative disorder characterised by progressive lower limb spasticity and weakness. HSP 26 affects only six people worldwide, one of whom is Jason.<\/p>\n<p>READ NEXT:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.donegallive.ie\/news\/features\/2026409\/rare-disease-day-a-donegal-boy-who-is-one-of-only-six-in-the-world.html\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rare Disease Day: The inspirational Donegal boy who is one of only six in the world<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As their friend, Laura McCrea undertook the challenge in support of Jason. The fundraiser &#8211;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.idonate.ie\/fundraiser\/laurabrady3\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> A Leap for Rare Ireland<\/a> &#8211; is still open until Wednesday, March 18.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screenshot_2026-03-11_103244-1773225243555.png\" width=\"500\" height=\"537\" caption=\"false\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would like to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for donating and for reading our story.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have raised a lot of awareness for Rare Ireland and for children with rare diseases. Everyone in our community has been amazing, getting behind us and sharing our story.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<p>ADVERTISEMENT &#8211; CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Three Donegal natives abseiled down Croke Park in aid of Rare Ireland.\u00a0 Laura Brady and scfe Robbie Barlow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3221,764,1485,13347,61,60,34925,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-340404","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-charity","9":"tag-croke-park","10":"tag-donegal","11":"tag-donegal-town","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-mountcharles","15":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}