Man to walk 86km carrying late father’s oxygen tank to raise funds for Mater

It has been only a few weeks since Gary Farrell’s father, Peadar, died aged 70 from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), but he is determined to honour his father’s memory.

Farrell, founder of Scoliosis Ireland, is raising much-needed funds for the Mater hospital heart and lung ward by walking 86km from Co Dublin to Co Offaly with his father’s oxygen bottle on his back.

The oxygen canister will make the long journey all the more difficult for Farrell, who has scoliosis, but he feels it’s important to carry the bottle to remind people of the huge restrictions IPF places on a person’s life. “[My father] was on a transplant list for a new lung, but it didn’t become available on time and he passed away,” says Farrell. “My dad, when he had the condition, he couldn’t even get up to make a cup of tea.” He enjoyed walking but, his son explains, “he had to stay at home a lot of the time in those last eight years and he became dependent on additional oxygen to try and keep him going. His need for oxygen just became that much that he had to be hospitalised for the last four weeks before he did pass away.

“I’m delighted to actually be able to do it, even though it is a challenge for me with the scoliosis. I get an awful lot of dislocations, especially the hips, so it is a challenge but I’m doing it for those who can’t do it — to raise awareness and raise funds along the way as well.

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“It’s painful enough when I go for a walk without the canister, or without the oxygen tank, so we’ve been training for the last three weeks with the tank on my back in the morning,” he says. It’s particularly painful on his right side, where the curvature of his spine is. “It is a good bit of pressure. It is more of a deal for me than a person without scoliosis.

“My hips wouldn’t be that stable. I have three curvatures in my spine. There is a chance of getting little dislocations, partial dislocations and stuff along the way, especially with the weight of that cylinder as well.”

Gary says the heart and lung ward in the Mater hospital were “unbelievable” in how they looked after his father. “They went above and beyond. He used to always be laughing and messing with the nurses up there and he became very friendly with them. And even to the point where some of the nurses even gave him their Netflix passwords and all. I think it was just to shut him up,” he adds, laughing.

“Some of them went to different wards ... and a couple of days before he did pass away, they all came back to see him and to give him a hug. It was nice. They didn’t have to and they did.”

Gary begins his charity walk on July 19th from the Mater hospital, Dublin, finishing in Rhode, Co Offaly, on July 20th. To support the cause, you can donate here.