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RUNNERS (AND WALKERS) are being asked to take part in a special fundraising run… in the dark.
It’s not quite a blindfolded run but the Run for Mark in the Dark takes place on an upcoming winter evening to symbolise the challenges facing blind adventurer and motivational speaker Mark Pollock. Mark lost his sight in his final year in Trinity College Dublin at the age of 22 but went on to win Commonwealth medals at rowing, become the first blind Irishman to race to the South Pole and take part in numerous tests of athletic endurance.
Over a decade after going blind, utter tragedy hit Mark when he was paralysed from the waist down in an accidental fall just weeks before he was due to marry his fiancée last summer. He almost died in the fall and his body was ravaged by potentially-lethal infections in the months afterwards.
Now, however, he is taking part in a programme called Project Walk, investigating aggressive physiotherapy methods from the United States in the hope that he can re-educate his body into walking.
The Run for Mark in the Dark is a fundraiser to support that project. The run will be held simultaneously in Belfast, Dublin, Cork and Galway at 7.30pm on 16 November – participants can run between 4km or 10km, depending on the location. (Or you can walk it, if you don’t feel up to the jog!) Full information and registration is at www.run4mark.com.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Pollock said that the first few months after his fall were literally a matter of survival. He said:
For the first six months, from July to Christmas, I was in the acute phase. I was very sick, going from nearly dying to stabilising my back to fighting off waves and waves of infections.All along I was watching people go off to rehab and do their six months of physio and then leave the hospital. I began to wonder what happens after you’ve been in the gym every day and then leave hospital – what happens then?
This need to prepare for his future outside rehab – and desire to do everything within his power to give himself the best possible chance of a full recovery (if that is possible) led Mark to investigate his options. He said:
It is this tension between realism and optimism, between the acceptance that I am in a (wheel)chair and have to learn the skills to live with this, and the hope that I am keeping alive that there is something out there that might help me recover.
The hope is that physical aggressive therapy, as practised in certain programmes in the US, might be one option. He is also hoping that his experience with Project Walk might introduce some of its methods in Ireland. He said:
I can’t feel or move my legs but what I want to do is explore the possibilities by doing it myself and explore the possibilities that aggressive physical therapy might present and bring that conversation back to the medical community in Ireland.
Mark Pollock can also be seen making his TV hosting debut this November. He will present a new documentary TV series, kicking off on Setanta Sports at 9pm next Monday, 7 September, called ‘Yes, I can’. The show will feature four inspirational people who battle physical challenges every day buut who have always wanted to try extreme sports and have never had the chance.
This is a clip of a documentary, Blind Man Walking, made by film-maker Ross Whitaker about Mark’s race to the South Pole:
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I wonder what the rent for one week is on the shop on Grafton St. No trade for a week made their negligence in hygiene a very expensive mistake, not to mention the bad press of having dead rats on food making premises is going to cost them.
It was one day.
@Scott Kincaid: spoilsport. Don’t let facts get in the way of a good moan!
@oDevilsavocado:
@Devilsavocado: .theres a rat in the kitchen what you going to do?obviously catch it in a trap moron
All deli’s and restaurant should have the same high standard kitchen,
Set out the criteria
High standard easy to clean flooring
All identical
Same sinks
Fat separators
Waste pipes, 50mm / 100mm
Same standard fridges cooling rooms.
Counter tops,
All on castors for easy removal.
To many Dirty old backstreet Kip’s around.
The restaurants on Moore St. never look clean.
So he was brown bread then
Stella-a-a-a!!!!
Clean up the rodent droppings!
I don’t know of any other State organisation that publicises their findings. Perhaps fire inspectors could do same.
@John Flood: HIQA.
Fire alerts Ireland
@John Flood: I think that’s a great idea.
If there was an official website for such alerts, it would help. We could check it & get alerts for our areas. Or nationally.
A few years ago I spotted a newspaper alert recalling faulty immersion timers. My sister’s place had the same one. Pure chance that I saw it and told others. That company ran ads and replaced them with safe ones on request, free of charge. Fair enough, if you knew to ring up and request one. But there was no coordination.
I let our management company know of the issue. Two of my neighbours had already had fires starting in the hot press.
All places built during the boom, bought off the plans & signed off. All with the same batch of immersion timers. Some will still have them.
This is a list I find interesting whenever it comes out. Sad I know. Living in Waterford I do not recall seeing an incident occurring in Waterford. Whilst I am sure the establishments in Waterford are clean, I sometimes wonder how thorough the inspections are by the officers in the area
Do the Gardai think it was murder, want to be investigating that?
Has the journal blamed Boris yet, or indeed president Trump???
@John: The Journal generally doesn’t tend to blame Boris or Trump, that would be some.of the commentators here. You should be grateful, if people didn’t make those comments and you didn’t have to constantly defend them then what you spend all your spare time doing?
What’s the problem? He was dead.
@Chris Folliard: how did he get in? Are they more of them? why wasn’t the dead rat removed?
@Jim Buckley Barrett: :Through the door
:Possibly : Couldn’t remove himself because he is dead.
@Chris Folliard: Traps are supposed to be checked daily. You sure it was the door? Wasn’t a hole somewhere? Maybe there’s a nest of them on the property. maybe repairs are needed to bring the place up to standards.
@Jim Buckley Barrett: they were waiting for the postmortem
@Chris Folliard: Depends on how much per kg they were charging!
@Jim Buckley Barrett: maybe the Pied Piper was staying there ?
@Jim Buckley Barrett: answer to your question is probably an open door or window,that not rocket science is it. Are there more off them?100%yes..keep your windows and doors closed. Oh and always check the toilet before you sit down because they can swim. Ie theres a rat in every kitchen, you just don’t see them Jim.
@FlopFlipU: I can picture the little white tent over the body, and tiny people in white coats and masks going in and out…
Trying to think of a joke in relation to the apple green rat.
T’sangs off my list now .
@Ciaran105: flames in clonee is better
@Declan Holden: it sure is , had a nice meal a couple of weeks ago. Certainly going back . Tnx
Is that where the Dáil rat ended up?
@Ian Heaton / Eoin De Héadún: the dail rat published the budget yesterday
I love coming to the comment section to read all the expert opinions…
Yes Name and Shame if ye had the same laws for litter lots our country would be A Lot Cleaner
@pat seery: Maybe all citizens in their various capacities should be tagged in some way and named and shamed when they break the rules. Big Brother here we come.
Must have sampled the chicken fillets
If trap one was occupied by rat one, where did rat 2, 3 and others reside. Did the wait in quay for trap one to become evacuated?
At least the rat was dead I suppose?
@Madra: maybe it died because it ate the food….
Glad I have never set foot in any of these places
At lease the rat was dead I suppose?
Watt heaf hookin’ die of??!!
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