{"id":588788,"date":"2026-08-10T10:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T10:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588788\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T10:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T10:06:14","slug":"glow-up-ireland-star-set-to-climb-kilimanjaro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/588788\/","title":{"rendered":"Glow Up Ireland star set to climb Kilimanjaro"},"content":{"rendered":"

A make-up artist who appeared in RT\u00c9\u2019s Glow Up Ireland is set to climb Kilimanjaro in memory of her mother, who passed away from a rare form of dementia.<\/p>\n

Anne O\u2019Connor was just 59 when she died from Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) in 2022, leaving behind her heartbroken husband Ray, her youngest daughter Megan and brother Shane.<\/p>\n

Now Megan \u2013 who starred in the Maura Higgin<\/a>s’ front show Glow Up Ireland<\/a> in 2021 \u2013 will take on ‘the biggest challenge’ of her life so far and join FTD brothers, Jordan and Cian Adams from Redditch, Worcestershire, to climb the African mountain.<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor with her mother Anne. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

The brothers gained international attention by running 33 marathons in 33 days across every county in Ireland and the London Marathon to raise over \u00a31.9 million for frontotemporal dementia (FTD) research and awareness after their mother Geraldine died from the illness.<\/p>\n

Speaking exclusively to EVOKE, Megan said: \u2018I remember years ago when I was in the depths of caring for mam and I saw the lads on BBC Breakfast and they were talking about their mam.<\/p>\n

\u2018I followed them on Instagram. Obviously with them running and the fridge on their back, everyone that did know them was talking about them.<\/p>\n

\u2018I went to the finish line to cheer them on at Merrion Square in Dublin.’<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

But two weeks before meeting the brothers in Dublin, Megan’s best pal Siobhain McGobern, who now lives in Sydney, spotted the brothers were organising a trek to Tanzania.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m like the queen of notions\u2026 I said it dad and dad took it with a grain of salt. But it was a week after that conversation that we said, \u201cwe\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Nothing had ever felt right or significant enough to honour mam like this did. So myself and Siobhain signed up for it.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was in May that we signed up. There\u2019s 36 or 38 members in the group. Most are England based.<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor with Siobhain McGovern. Pic: Supplied <\/p>\n

\u2018We all have our own little driving forces to get us up to the top. I feel like it will be definitely emotional from bottom to top. Everyone will have their stories to share.’<\/p>\n

Megan said she hopes to place a picture of her beloved mother when she reaches the top of the mountain.<\/p>\n

\u2018It will be incredible. It will be nice to bring a little photo of mam and leave it at the top to honour her because she didn\u2019t get to see the world. I feel like it will be a full circle moment.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor with Siobhain McGovern. Pic: Supplied <\/p>\n

Megan and Siobhain will fly out on October 17 and begin their seven-day Kilimanjaro hike on October 18.<\/p>\n

\u2018Our hope was to raise \u20ac5,000 and we have already surpassed that.’<\/p>\n

Speaking about her mother Anne’s diagnosis, she revealed it took three years for doctors to finally diagnose Anne with the debilitating memory condition – and she hopes to raise money to create more awareness.<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor at the Best Dressed Energy celebration for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at The Dylan Hotel. Pic: Brian McEvoy<\/p>\n

She said: \u2018She started showing symptoms in her early 50s but like that, it is so hard, when someone is so young and there is no family history, trying to get a diagnosis is so hard.<\/p>\n

\u2018Especially a woman of that age because it gets put down hormone imbalances or menopause. It was hard trying to get someone to listen.<\/p>\n

\u2018By the time she got the referral to the memory clinic, she had already progressed so much that she was kind of unaware of the severity of what the diagnosis means because we all know there is no cure for that.<\/p>\n

\u2018It was 2017 when she got the diagnosis. It took about three years for her to finally get the diagnosis and try to get someone to listen.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor with her mother Anne. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

Megan said when they initially got the diagnosis, she admitted she felt a \u2018sense of relief\u2019 for ‘a split second’, adding: \u2018You\u2019re so tired of people not listening to you.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018You just wanted to get an answer, even though it was the last thing we wanted because we knew the outcome of it.\u2019<\/p>\n

Megan said her mother\u2019s illness came around very quickly over three years.<\/p>\n

\u2018She lost the ability to walk. She went downhill quite rapidly and then in the last year in the residential home, she became a shadow of what she was.\u2019<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

In 2021, Megan appeared on Glow Up Ireland but months after building her online platform, she took a step back after Anne passed away in February 2022.<\/p>\n

\u2018I definitely channelled my grief into a treadmill\u2026My content online turned from make-up to navigating trying to find myself again.<\/p>\n

\u2018I was in the depths of looking after mam, she had just moved into full time care. It was Covid times and I definitely wasn\u2019t my best self at that time. It all came around quickly.<\/p>\n

\u2018But being on the show was a brilliant experience at the same time. It was great to get out of the bubble that was life at that point in time.<\/p>\n

\"\"Megan O’Connor with her mother Anne. Pic: Supplied<\/p>\n

\u2018It was a great experience at the same time.\u2019<\/p>\n

Megan added that her mother was a ‘kind-hearted, lovely woman’ with the ‘sweetest soul’.<\/p>\n

\u2018She was such a kind-hearted, lovely woman. I know everyone would say that about their mammy.. she was the sweetest soul.<\/p>\n

\u2018She wouldn\u2019t be the loudest woman in the room but she had a heart that radiated. She was a loving and sensitive soul and a creative woman.\u2019<\/p>\n

To donate to Megan and Siobhain’s cause, click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A make-up artist who appeared in RT\u00c9\u2019s Glow Up Ireland is set to climb Kilimanjaro in memory of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-588788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588788","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=588788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}