Corkman completes 65 climbs of Patrick's Hill in aid of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland

A Corkman has successfully scaled one of Cork’s steepest hills 65 times in one day in an attempt to raise funds for Cystic Fibrosis Ireland as part of the charity’s 65 Roses Day Challenge.

This year, Cystic Fibrosis Ireland asked those taking part in the fundraiser to be creative and try to include 65 in their efforts, so Pádraig Carroll of Carrigaline decided to do something different by doing 65 climbs of Patrick’s Hill.

Speaking to The Echo, Mr Carroll said he reached his target and completed the full 65 laps which took him over 12 full hours in total.

Beginning at 7am in the morning and finishing at 7.30pm in the evening, he and his childhood friend Colin McCormack completed the challenge together after some knee “popping and clicking”.

He said they took on the challenge by breaking it into sets of 10, taking a 10-minute break after each set of 10 circuits up and down Patrick’s Hill, as well as a one hour and 30-minute break, completing the challenge with a total of over 60,000 steps covered and 671 flights of stairs.

He said there were also many others who joined in for some of the walk, and others who came to support.

“The amount of people that came out. I saw people that I hadn’t seen in about 20 years who came out to support and donate money. It was absolutely incredible.” Mr Carroll took on the challenge to raise awareness about the disease which has touched his own family.

He and his wife Priscilla’s son Lucas, who is almost two, has Cystic Fibrosis and the pair lost their newborn daughter Alice last August to the disease.

“I didn’t know anything about Cystic Fibrosis myself. My wife didn’t either, she’s from Brazil and it’s not a big thing in Brazil.

It makes it even more puzzling because CF is generally the Irish gene. One in 19 people in Ireland are what’s known as carriers. There are no underlying illnesses or anything, you’re just a carrier.

"However, if that person and another person who is also a carrier meet and decide to have a kid then there is a one in four chance that child is going to have CF.

“There is a 50% chance that child will be a carrier and there’s a 25% chance that they won’t,” he said.

In total, over €11,000 has been raised through the Just Giving page and additional funds that were collected during the event on Saturday which Mr Carroll said he is “very grateful” for.

Donations can still be made via the dedicated fundraising page here.