Records broken again at Derry 'Darkness Into Light' annual charity walk

Saturday morning’s annual charity walk ‘Darkness Into Light’ in Derry saw records smashed again for attendance as the dawn of a new sunrise was greeted by the many walkers and runners taking part to raise much-needed funds for the HURT charity.

The route for the 2025 walk/run again started at Sainsburys car park on the Strand Road, along the quay and then crossed Craigavon Bridge before making its way back across the Peace Bridge and finishing back at Sainsbury’s.

IN PICTURES: Record numbers at Derry 'Darkness Into Light' annual charity walk

Edelle O’Donnell, with the help of Sadie O’Reilly and Leanne Doherty-Mulberry (Hurt) cut the ribbon to officially start this year’s Walk/Run, and then followed a mass of yellow T-shirts walking along the quayside with ages ranging from three years to eight. Families, companies, schools, local small businesses and community groups had their representatives all out in force in the early morning, some running, others walking, others taking in the dawn sights with their mobile phones, as they sauntered along the picturesque River Foyle.

Amazed once again to see such a crowd turn up, Sadie O’Reilly, HURT founder, speaking before the start of Saturday’s event, said: ‘In the present climate of cuts and as an addiction charity every penny of what is raised today is needed to help support families and those in need in both Derry and Strabane and the surrounding rural areas.’

The local charity HURT is a unique drop-in centre offering holistic approaches to addiction recovery and family support. The team of trained addiction counsellors and staff are able to advise on all aspects of addiction and treatment possibilities.

Sadie added: ‘We offer clients up to 10 weeks of counselling, three complementary therapies and auricular acupuncture seeds. We are also trying to grow this continually despite the present economic climate.’

Event organiser, HURT’s Leanne Doherty-Mulberry also paid tribute to the record numbers, emphasising: ‘A massive thank you to everyone for their support once again. The people of this city and district never fail to impress us at HURT with their generous and continued support. Thank you all who supported us this year including all the local businesses who never let us down. Without them this event would not be possible.’

Darkness into light started In 2009, in the Phoenix Park in Dublin, 400 people set off on the inaugural Darkness Into Light 5km walk to raise funds for Pieta. From small beginnings, the movement has continued to grow, and now there are over 150,000 participants in Darkness Into Light each year.