Main pic from L to R: The happy men at the finish line are Conor Gallen, Conor Dorrian, Charlie Boyle and Gareth Coady.
A brave cancer survivor successfully completed the Rome Marathon yesterday in aid of a worthy local charity.
Letterkenny man, Conor Dorrian, was first diagnosed in 2013 with Primary CNS Lymphoma, a rare inoperable aggressive cancerous brain tumour, and for a second time in 2017.
During that time he received treatment and care in Beaumont Hospital, St Luke’s Hospital and St James Hospital.
He underwent chemotherapy, radiation therapy as well as a stem cell transplant.
Conor was also paralysed for a month in 2017 when he lost mobility in the right side of his body.
However Conor is happy that this chapter of his life is now behind him. To mark ten years since his first diagnosis, he and three friends – Charlie Boyle, Conor Gallen and Gareth Coady – completed the Rome Marathon yesterday.
In the process they have managed, to date, to raise almost €13,000 for the Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital charity.
Conor Dorrian before heading off to Rome.
“We are running it for a very special charity, one that my family and I would have been lost without when I was receiving radiation treatment in St.Luke’s Hospital – Friends of Letterkenny University Hospital,” he said.
The ‘Friends’ charity is a voluntary organisation that provides such an important service for the people of Donegal
Their services include the provision of medical equipment, facilities, services and patient comforts in the hospital which would not otherwise be available from central funding.
They also provide free transport for people from Donegal who require radium treatment in St. Luke’s Hospital in Dublin.
You can still donate to Conor’s marathon effort by going to his GoFundMe page.
A collage showing Conor’s cancer journey.