County Derry friends to take on Four Peaks Challenge

Five friends and members of a County Derry GAA club are set to scale the highest peaks in each of Ireland's provinces to rise vital funds for a local mental health charity.

Paul Downey, Anthony Letters, Jarlath McLaughlin, Fergal Scullion and Barry Loughlin will take on the Four Peaks Challenge later this week.

The men, who are all from Greenlough, plan to climb Slieve Donard in County Down, Lugnaquilla in County Wicklow, Carrauntoohil in County Kerry and Mweelrea in County Mayo, over four days.

Some of the men pictured during training ahead of the challenge.

They will kick off their challenge in the early hours of St Patrick's Day and hope to finish on Sunday, March 20.

The friends, who are all committee members of St Oliver Plunkett's GAC in Greenlough, made the pact to take on the challenge back in September.

Ever since, they have put in hours and hours of training climbing different hills including Charn Tochair, Slieve Gallion and Slemish.

As a result of their efforts, the men have raised more than £5,500 so far for charity ALPS (All Lives Are Precious) which has a branch in nearby Portglenone.

The charity offers support to the community on all things wellbeing, mental health awareness and suicide prevention.

Paul Downey said the friends initially came together with a view to get fit but decided to push themselves further by taking on the challenge for charity.

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“It started off as a fitness drive and then one of the fellas said 'why don't we do something for charity',” said former club secretary Paul.

“We met one evening and threw a few different ideas out there and somebody then came up with the Four Peaks Challenge, which entailed a bit more climbing and hiking rather than walking, so it took off from there.”

The five have hired out a camper van and plan to set off in the early hours of Thursday morning to begin their challenge.

“We are actually planning to climb two of the mountains on Thursday, one on Friday and one on Saturday, leaving Sunday as a recovery day if we can, but if it doesn't pan out that way with daylight and that, we have left it that we have that day to finish it.

“We are planning to start Slieve Donard at half three in the morning. It'll be a different St Patrick's Day for us. A couple of the boys normally go to Cheltenham so they'll be missing that this year,” laughed Paul.

The men, who are all novices when it comes to mountain climbing, plan to do live Facebook feeds throughout their challenge, and hope that the public will dig deep to support the charity.

“Because suicide is so rife at the minute and the fact that ALPS have a wee office beside us in Portglenone, we thought it would be an ideal charity to raise money for. The club has done bits and pieces for them before. One of the fellas is a teacher and Frank Diamond, who works with ALPS, comes into his school to do talks also. They do good work in the community and the money raised will be used locally,” said Paul.

Looking forward to the challenge, he added: “We are all friends so I'm sure it will be good craic as well as being fairly gruelling but we will all push each other on.”

Donations to the challenge can be made via https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/4peakchallange. 

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