The Wild Atlantic Way is a coastline adventure that stretches over 2,500km through nine counties and three provinces, from County Donegal's Inishowen Peninsula to Kinsale, County Cork. We caught up with Marie before she hit the road to give you an insight into the challenge itself and her motivation behind it.
What inspired you to take on this challenge for MS Ireland?
My father, John, who has Multiple Sclerosis, has been my main inspiration. It is through his experience with the MS Society in attending their physiotherapy group classes, I have seen the vital services and supports available to people who have MS. I now want to give back & try to help ensure programmes of support can continue for people with MS.
How are you feeling about the challenge ahead?
I have a mixture of feelings as the departure date looms. I am feeling nervous and apprehensive yet excited, thankful & incredibly lucky. I am nervous and apprehensive about the physical & mental challenges ahead yet excited for the adventure that lies before me on The Wild Atlantic Way. I feel so thankful to everyone who has supported me on the campaign so far. I feel lucky and privileged to have the health and wellbeing to cycle The Wild Atlantic way in support of people living with MS.
How did you prepare for this fundraising challenge - mentally, physically? And what have been some of your more successful fundraising ideas so far?
I have been training for the cycle for the last number of months. I juggled training for an adventure race in April with training for Marie’s Spin. Once I could solely focus on cycling I enjoyed early morning cycles before work. I don’t mind a sunrise alarm clock being a morning person by nature, rather than late evening session and I have focused on longer cycles at weekends to get the mileage into my legs. By mixing terrain and elevation on different days I have tried to vary training as much as possible while maintaining flexibility and mobility through yoga and relaxation techniques.
There have been mental ups and downs over the last number of months. With organising fundraising events which have taken place to date, making contact with media, forward planning for the cycle in July and other tasks, time has been something I have found more of than I ever realised possible and yet have wished there could be more hours in a day on many occasions.
Staying calm and reflecting on my reasons and motivation for this campaign also kept me grounded at times when the busyness could have taken hold and caused me to get stressed. There is always more you can do but if what you do is your best at that moment in time then that is a pretty good position to be in. It took a while for me to realise this and then the process became less stressful and more enjoyable.
I have organised a number of events in the lead up to the main event, Marie’s Spin. There was an Easter egg raffle and sponsored cycle in the secondary school where I work, a number of street collections and an event called ‘Dress Cents’ for Multiple Sclerosis. Each of these events was hugely successful in their own right. Dress Cents was based on the idea that people donated fashion items they no longer wanted but someone else might like to buy. An evening event was organised where people purchased items enjoyed refreshments, a fashion show, a raffle with all proceeds going to MS.
What are you most looking forward to about your upcoming adventure?
My father is travelling alongside me for the first week of this adventure, from Kinsale to Castlegregory and this is a prospect which is exciting for both of us. I am delighted that he is able to accompany me and what better company could I have on the first leg of the trip than the person who has always inspired me to live and enjoy life. I’m sure tough days will come on The Wild Atlantic Way where I will need to borrow some of his determination and we might even allow ourselves have a little laugh now and again. We can’t have too much fun and laughter of course!!
I am also excited to meet the faces at the end of the phone and email conversations I have had in arranging accommodation along the route. Hotels, guesthouses and individual members of the public have opened their doors in the most generous way by hosting me for the majority of the nights I am traversing The Wild Atlantic Way.
I am looking forward in hope to the awareness that this campaign will raise for the condition that is Multiple Sclerosis. The resilience and determination people exhibit in the face of MS deserves to be honoured in undertaking this challenge.
What advice would you offer to other people looking to complete a challenge like this?
Consider your reasons and motivations for taking on the challenge, write these down and if they matter enough to you commit to making your vision a reality. I would say that early on focus on where you want your campaign to go and the scale which you can comfortably manage. Once you have an idea that you think you can make a reality, go for it and don’t look back.
One big piece of advice that I didn’t take on board enough was to ask other people for help and not to micromanage the project. I tried to do almost everything myself which was unnecessarily demanding. If people say they want to help, take them up on their offers of help. This has been one of my biggest learnings to date.
There will be days where you will wonder have you taken on too much and you might need to reflect on your motivations but it is during those times that you build even more conviction in your reasons for undertaking a challenge. My ultimate piece of advice is to enjoy yourself, the people you meet along the way and the lessons you will learn throughout your adventure.
Get Active for MS
We hope that you’ll support Marie along the way by sending her good luck messages via Facebook and Twitter. Also you can help her support our work by making a donation on her Justgiving page
If you would like to take on a challenge for MS Ireland please check out our website at or contact our fundraising team at fundraising@ms-society.ie