Cork sisters to walk one million steps in May for Marymount

CORK sisters and fashion bloggers Ciara and Emer Quinn have vowed to walk one million steps in the month of May to raise funds for Marymount Hospice while honouring their late aunts.

Ciara and Emer Quinn, better known on Instagram as ‘sisterstyle', are taking on the one-million step challenge to raise funds for Marymount who provided “amazing” care to two of their aunts.

Each year on the anniversary of the passing of their aunt, singer Eilish O'Driscoll, the sisters wear turbans in her memory as Eilish's great sense of style and turbans were often admired by the nurses who cared for her in Marymount.

This year, however, coinciding with the third anniversary of the passing of Eilish on 21 May, the sisters decided to complete the steps challenge in aid of the hospice that cared for her in her final few months.

23-year-old Ciara said that Eilish, who they fondly referred to as ‘The Diva’ had encouraged the sisters to set up their fashion blog and after much persuasion, the pair took the plunge and created their fashion profile on Instagram.

The sisters share fashion and beauty content on their shared Instagram profile @sister_style_.

“The page was set up because it was Eilish’s dying wish that we set up a fashion blog. We laughed and cried with her whilst trying to decide on a name for the page but eventually went for sisterstyle which wasn’t set up until around a year after she passed,” they said.

“I think that she is looking down on us with pride knowing her persistence paid off and we got our page up and running.”

Ciara described the “amazing care” their aunt received during her time at Marymount while their aunt Michelle Geaney, who passed away ten years ago, also received exceptional care from Marymount staff.

In memory of their two aunts and to show their appreciation for the work Marymount do, the sisters are aiming to complete a combined total of one million steps in 31 days.

In order to reach the one million step target, the sisters have been going on numerous long walks and Leaving Cert student Emer has even been squeezing in walks between school, while Ciara has also been balancing academic work while undertaking the challenge.

“Emer actually came up with the idea. She said we could do a million steps in May the two of us so 500,000 steps each,” said Ciara.

“So, we kind of just split it up.” 

“It’s actually quite hard but we’re getting it done and it’s definitely doable."

To donate to the fundraiser and keep up to date with the challenge, visit @sister_style_ on Instagram or click here.