Derry's Ironman Danny Quigley announces new 'Celebration of Life' challenge

Danny Quigley has announced that he will swim the River Foyle all the way into the North Atlantic Ocean next August and dedicate every kilometre along the way to someone who has lost their lives to suicide or mental illness.

Called the ‘Celebration of Life’, Danny’s new challenge will honour those who have passed away, by looking beyond the circumstances of their passing and celebrating who they were as people. The goal is to look beyond the stigma of suicide and mental illness and see the friends, family members and loved ones for who they really were and what they really brought to their lives before they died.

It is an incredible challenge, which will take place in August 2023, two years on from his Ironman challenge when he completed ten long distance triathlons in ten days, raising over £100,000 for local charities while also raising awareness around the positive role physical activity can play in mental and physical health.

The ‘Celebration of Life’ challenge will see Danny swim a minimum of 90 kilometres, rising to potentially 200 kilometres, with each kilometre in memory of someone who has lost their lives to suicide or mental illness.

Danny decided to attempt last year’s Ironman challenge in memory of his father Colm Quigley who died by suicide while also raising awareness of mental health and suicide prevention and raising funds for Pieta House and the Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum’s Counselling Service.   

Since then, he has formed the Danny Quigley Fund to help provide much needed one to one counselling services for individuals in the North West and tackle the high rate of suicide before receiving the Freedom of Derry and Strabane at a special ceremony at the Guildhall in May.

But Danny insists that the ‘Celebration of Life’ challenge is not about him, but rather those who have lost their lives and the families and loved ones who remember them still.

“The idea is to celebrate the lives of anyone who has died from mental illness or suicide,” he explained. “The main reason is that mental illness or suicide can sometimes overshadow the person so that you can tend to forget the good times and the good characters of the people who have died. “We tend to focus too much on the times when they were sick or when they were feeling down. The other thing is the stigma or the shame that is put on people who have died that way after they have died.

“Even the closing ceremonies, they tend to shy away and not talk about the issues and how things could have been prevented. As a result, they don’t get the closing ceremony that they deserve. This is called ‘A Celebration of Life’ to give an opportunity to share and celebrate the person who has died through the good memories and the good times, when they weren’t sick and when they weren’t suicidal. It’s to show people that they can talk about it and rally celebrate their loved ones without feeling any shame or stigma.”

The distance will certainly push Danny to his limits, particularly in the River Foyle, but he now has 10 months to prepare for a feat that is clearly close to his heart.

“It'll enter the water at Foyle Search & Rescue and I’ll go right, downstream towards the Atlantic Ocean,” he stated. “I’ll go right down River Foyle to Lough Foyle, through that and to the Atlantic. Depending on how many people get involved on this, that will determine how long I am swimming for. The minimum is about 90 kilometres and that will be to hopefully celebrate 90 different lives. If 200 people want to get involved, that means I’ll be swimming 200km. The actual duration is undecided until I start.

“It's a bit of a logistical nightmare because there’s so many things that can happen, especially in the River Foyle. The River Foyle is tidal, so the way this swim will work will be that it is six hours in the water and six hours out and that’s how it has to continue until I finish. The Foyle travels that fast that if I try to swim against the tide, I’ll literally be pushed backwards, even though I’m swimming forwards. It’s going to eb really tough logistically to try and time it, but the main problem will be the cold water; it’s going to get cold.”

Benefits

So much good has come from Danny’s Ironman efforts last year, and he is again taking on a mammoth challenge in the hope that he can raise important funds for both the Bogside and Brandywell Health Forum and the Foyle Search & Rescue.

“After seeing the benefits of everything that happened last year in terms of the amount we raised and that has been given out already, it’s kind of a no-brainer to keep pushing and keep the conversation going,” he admitted.

“People have also been let down, because whenever someone dies, they should be remembered for all their goodness and all their happy time and all the treasured memories.

“I think whenever someone dies from suicide, or mental illness like addiction, basically anything that can be seen in a negative light, or anything that has a stigma attached, they can be left behind. In my experience of talking to people who have been affected by losing someone this way, I’ve always had the same answer. They are afraid to talk about it. There is still a lot of stigma surrounding it, so this is just solely about celebrating the people who have died in a sad way and celebrating their life and who that person was.”

It is important to note that Danny will not be swimming each kilometre just for the numbers, he wants to really personalize this challenge so he knows who exactly he is honoring every step of the way.

“What I want to do is I want to develop a relationship, I want to get to know each person so that whenever I do this swim, I know who each kilometre is for and which family it’s for,” he said.

“I don’t want to be just swimming along and not knowing who the kilometre is for. I want to develop a relationship with anybody who was involved and to paint a picture of who the person was.

“By signing up, you email me the name (see details below), I’ll ring you and find out about the person, all the good that’s come from their life and just have a conversation. That’s part of the message as well – we’re trying to promote mental health and a good conversation seems to be a good way of starting. Start the email with ‘Celebration of Life’ and I’ll be in contact. Send me the person’s name and a phone number and I’ll be in contact to find out more information.”

Remembering the good times

Next August may seem a bit away, but not for Danny who has plenty of hard work ahead of him ahead of another life-changing challenge. But for Derry’s Ironman, each life lost to suicide or mental illness deserves to be remembered for the joy and love they brought to the world, and that in itself is worth every lonely night of training.

“This is a celebration of people,” he stated. “This is not about me. This is about celebrating these people, and all the good that they did and all the pride they gave before things got low. We don’t want to remember them for their illness or the way that they died; we want to remember them for all the good and the positive impact that they had on people before they got sick. That’s the main thing for me, and if anybody wants to get involved for no other reason than to celebrate the lives of people, then please get in touch.”

If you would like to get involved with the ‘Celebration of Life’ challenge and honour a loved one, please email Danny at tridanquigley@gmail.com