Sarah’s Endeavor

Last year, Sarah Melvin, a former Sligo resident now living and working in Sydney, Australia, won a fancy dress competition and in the process won her entry to the Corporate Fighter ultimate fight night experience.  Sarah lost her friend, Michael Cryan, to suicide on the day she left for Australia over 5 years ago and in his memory.  Michael’s family chose North West STOP to benefit from this fundraising event on the other side of the world and we are humbled by all that they have done and indeed, by the efforts Sarah put in before, during and after her Corporate Fighter Charity Fight Night!!

This month our Chairperson met Sarah to thank her for her achievement and efforts.

Michael’s parents were there too and along with Sarah stood for a photo.  With huge thanks to everyone who got involved in this effort.  Please read on for more.

What is Corporate Fighter?

The Corporate Fighter Experience is an 10-week intensive training program that coaches beginner boxers, between 18 to 65 years of age, through structured training sessions on at least 5 days per week throughout the course.  The entire experience, culminates in a charity fight night where opponents are matched by weight, age, gender, experience and ability.  On top of all that, participants are obligated to sell tickets for the final event and they undertake a fundraising campaign for a charity of their choosing.

Charity Fight Night: Boxing Bout 8 of 10

On this side of the world, we arose early to watch the Corporate Fighter 58 Fight Night being streamed live from Luna Park, Sydney, Australia on December 18th 2021.  To watch the bout head over to this Corporate Fighter link on Facebook and move the timeline to 2:13:00 for bout number 8, “Killer Katie” Foley and Sarah “The Smelvinator” Melvin.

Victory for Sarah

Raising funds for North West STOP in the process, she put her heart and soul into training for and ultimately winning her Luna Park Fight Night bout against fellow Irish woman, Katie Foley.

Michael’s family in Ireland threw themselves into the efforts too, with a poster campaign throughout Sligo and surrounding areas.

There was further support here from Ocean FM who spoke with Sarah about the challenge and her experience.

All efforts combined, between Sligo and Sydney, €10,417.86  (or AUS $15,823) was transferred to our charity last month.

Where do the funds go?

These funds are used to provide often life-saving counselling sessions to people throughout Sligo, Leitrim, Donegal, Cavan, Mayo, Roscommon and Longford and the efforts by Sarah and her supporters will provide 260 hours of counselling, ensuring that 30-50 people are assisted through focused counselling sessions to help them reach peace with themselves and a life they will hopefully cherish.

North West STOP was founded because of a gap in terms of access to institutional services in our area where individuals may be on a long term waiting list.  We provide a free confidential counselling service where you can safely talk about loss, stress, confusion, feeling alone, conflicts and other pain in your life.  If you find that you are self-harming, suicidal and feeling hopeless, we can help you: by calling our counselling service on 086 7772009 our counselling coordinator will organise the best available counsellor to help you.  We don’t have a waiting list so clients will be seen within a reasonable timeframe.

Our supporters

From Sydney to Sligo (we can say that now, officially), we have support from all over the world in our aim to ensure that in times of crisis, there will be support available to those who need it, when they need it most.  We are indebted to Sarah, her friends and followers in Sydney and to the Cryan family and their friends and supporters here in Ireland.  Without continuous fundraising efforts, we could not provide timely counselling services to those when they need it most.  Thank you!  All!  So much!