John Rooney, a retired Donegal Detective Garda, is taking a well earned break following his June bank holiday exertions.
Having served his community in the Ballyshannon area of Donegal for 30 years, upon retirement John has taken on numerous long distance cycles in aid of charities throughout the country.
Last week, John undertook his second non-stop solo cycle with 50% of the proceeds funding North West STOP’s free counselling and suicide prevention service. This expedition supports us in our efforts to provide counselling services to those in need of mental health assistance, when and where they need it most, bypassing waiting lists that clients experiencing severe mental health crises do not need. The Bluestack Special Needs Foundation will also receive 50% of the funds raised by John. Based in Donegal, Bluestack Special Needs Foundation is also a voluntary organisation which works to “Enhance the Lives of People with Additional Needs”.
John’s iDonate page has a goal of €6,000; which would realise €3,000 for each charity. For North West STOP, that would mean 8 people receive a full course of counselling sessions; this could indeed be life-saving therapy at a very significant time in a person’s life.
John has expressed his thanks to the people who supported him through his training and through the 700km cycle which saw him leave Ennis at 6am on June 3rd travelling along the coast to reach Ballyshannon at 8.30pm June 4th (38 and a half hours!!). We’ll extend our gratitude to the man of the moment, John Rooney, as well as to his crew, Eleanor, Méabh, Senan, Oisín, Tony, John & Karol and also to everyone who has donated to the campaign or shared it online or offline and to the wonderful people at Creevy Pier who welcomed John and his crew back to Ballyshannon and donated their Saturday tips.
