Your Run and Walk for Life…Your Way

October 9th to 11th 2020

The 2020 Run and Walk for Life will be like no other as the Solas Cancer Support Centre makes plans for their main annual fundraiser. This year the annual fundraiser will be a virtual one and the message is that it’s YOUR Run and Walk for Life-YOUR way. Participants get to choose their distance, their route, their day and their time in undertaking their own challenge.

Barry Monaghan, Acting Chair, explains what this event means to the charity: ‘With no Government funding in 2019 the charity was 96% funded by public donations and this huge community effort allows us to sustain the service each year. We were very proud to have been able to support a record number of 964 clients in 2019 calendar year. Unfortunately our face to face work stopped in line with government guidelines in mid-March and at the same time all our planned fundraising events were also cancelled. 2020 will be a challenging year for us financially and we hope that we can count on the support we have received for the Run and Walk for Life over the last 13 years’.

Manager Tracy McDaid explains about the huge support received each year from the event sponsors ‘This year we are extremely thankful to our event partners- UPMC Whitfield Hospital and Beat. Beat is a long-time sponsor and friend and with UPMC joining us as headline sponsor for their first year we offer them a warm welcome- it’s great to have you on board!’

Attending the launch Ms. Trish Lane, General Manager of UPMC Whitfield Hospital said “UPMC is delighted to partner yet again with the Solas Cancer Support Centre. For over a decade Solas service users often have attended UPMC Whitfield Hospital for oncology treatment and as such our continuing partnership with Solas ensures these clients receive the holistic care required during and after their cancer journey” Trish concluded.

Beat is pleased to be involved again this year and CEO Gabrielle Cummins explains more:

“The last few months have been challenging for all of us. From a Beat perspective, the pandemic has taught us just how important a role radio plays in the lives of our listeners.  Each of our 165,000 weekly listeners across the five counties of the South East knows someone who has been affected by cancer. We’d like to help get the Solas team’s important message out there that they’re back open & ready to serve as many clients as possible.”

This year the organisers hopes to encourage family and friends all over the world who haven’t been able to make it back to Waterford this year due to travel restrictions to take part in October. The aim this year is to see the iconic orange UPMC sponsored t-shirts in Sydney, Shanghai, San Francisco or wherever the Waterford diaspora might take part in the 2020 event.

For online registration visit www.solascentre.ie. The registration fee is €25 per adult and €15 per child and this fee includes the iconic orange t-shirt.

The Solas Cancer Support Centre reopened its doors on Monday 20th July in Waterford City and in Dungarvan. In line with guidelines around COVID 19 the charity offers a range of supports including Counselling and Art Psychotherapy, Information and printed booklets along with on-line wellness programs. For enquiries please call the Solas Cancer Support Centre on 051 304604 or email info@solascentre.ie.