Man to run four marathons in a day to honour his Nenagh born father

The son of a Nenagh man who is living with dementia is in training to run four marathons in just one day.

Eoin White, a native of Renmore in Galway, and now a resident of Salthill, is son of John White who grew up in Summerhill, Nenagh.

On June 20, on the Summer Solstice, 45-year-old Eoin, a father of three, will complete the equivalent of four marathons, on a route that will take in the entire breadth of County Galway, from the River Shannon to the Atlantic Ocean.

He faces a daunting 172-kilometre challenge, all in honour of his wonderful father and to raise funds for the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

Eoin will start his run at Banagher Bridge on the Shannon in a route that will take him through several towns and villages in Galway, before hopefully reaching the finish line 24 hours later way out on the west coast at Anchor Beach on Friday, June 21.

This ultra run challenge comes after Eoin and the rest of his wider family received the news in 2017 that John had dementia. “We felt completely lost at sea and didn’t know where to start,” Eoin revealed in an interview with the Galway Advertiser. “This was not a condition our family knew anything about.”

It was after this that Eoin and John became aware that they and their family were far from being the only ones in such a position. Some 64,000 people are living with dementia in Ireland and 180,000 are caring for a loved one living with the condition.

CREATING AWARENESS

Eoin said part of the reasons for taking on the daunting challenge is to create awareness and start a conversation about dementia and Alzheimer’s. His father, a retired broadcast engineer who worked with the BBC, RTÉ and with the UN in Indonesia and Iraq setting up radio networks, is now in the late stages of dementia.

Of the impact John’s illness has had on the family, John told the Galway Advertiser:  “The most heartbreaking thing about dementia isn’t that they forget who you are, it is that you can no longer share these beloved memories together. They are there, somewhere, but they just can’t be communicated. Dad is still with us, but everything that made our relationship special is gone.”

Among relatives in Nenagh who will be rooting for Eoin will be his aunts by marriage Rita White (Belleen) and his Godmother Jan White (Summerhill), the respective wives of Eoin’s late uncles, Tom and Willie. Eoin is also a nephew of the late Maureen McLoughlin (Knockanpierce).

HOW TO DONATE

To donate to Eoin’s fundraiser please visit www.4Marathons ForMemory.com You can also follow Eoin’s journey so far on his Instagram account @4Marathons ForMemory.