This article is from page 57 of the 2008-08-19 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 57 JPG
IT was a case of 36st time into the breach for Lahinch man Pat Conway last week as he, along with four other brave swimmers, took on the might of Liscannor Bay.
This year’s annual Lahinch to Lis- cannor Charity Swim was undertak- en in some of the worst weather in recent memory, with high winds and rough seas making the crossing a se- rious challenge for all concerned.
A group of five swimmers, in- cluding Pat’s son Damien, Johnny O’Loughlin, Brian McCarthy and Tom White, took to the rough wa- ters and in the process raised some
€6,000 for the Burren Chernobyl Project (BCP).
‘Pat has been doing this swim now for 36 years and we feel really lucky that in the past number of years he has fundraiser for Burren Cherno- byl,’ said Lisa O’Connor from the Burren Chernobyl Project.
“It’s such an important fundriaser for the organisation. It’s a great day and a lot of people come out to sup- port it both in Lahinch and Liscan- nor but besides that Pat always does a lot of fundraising in the town before the event itself.
“Pat does a wonderful job and the local people and businesses are so generous.”
Funds from this years event will go to a number of worthy projects in the Belarus where the BCP has made great strides in helping vulnerable people effected by the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster.
Indeed, Lisa’s daughter Tessa has just returned from an aid trip to Belarus. “There are so many differ- ent projects going on over there at the moment. We have several group out at the moment in the children’s orphanage Goradishche; we have a group from the Special Olympics who were just out and did a fantastic job out there in children’s summer camps, we have had a physiotherapy group and a group out there doing ar-
tistic work and painting,’ continued Lisa.
“We have just opened a day-care centre in Cherven last week. This facility will allow families to keep their children at home while they can go out and work during the day. It will let a lot of families keep their children at home instead of having to put them in one of the government asylums.
“It was just opened there in the end of July and will be of huge benefit to the locals there and especially the children.”
To learn more about the Burren Chernobyl Project check out www. burrenchernobylproject.ie