Past Pupils Fundraising Success!

We are incredibly proud to recognise two of our past pupils, Shay and Ger, who have shown outstanding compassion and commitment through their highly successful fundraising efforts in support of children with cancer. Their dedication, generosity, and determination have made a meaningful difference to the lives of young people and their families, and they are a true credit to themselves and to our school community. We celebrate their achievements and the positive impact they have made, and we wish them every success and happiness as they continue on their journeys into the future.

1. What first inspired you to start fundraising for children with cancer? Was there a specific story/experience that motivated you?

Childhood cancer has, unfortunately, touched both of our families, and that played a huge role in our decision to raise money for this cause. It’s something that feels very personal to us, not just because of our own experiences, but also because of what we’ve seen within our local community.
Recently our local communities were affected by this disease, and the impact that it had on their family and everyone around the community was incredibly difficult. At the same time, it also showed us the strength and togetherness that communities can have during such devastating moments.
Seeing both the heartbreak and the support that followed really stayed with us. It motivated us to take action and do what we can to give back, raise awareness, and hopefully make a small difference for others going through similar situations.

2. How did you turn your initial idea into action? What was your very first fundraising activity you organised?

Ever since school, we had always talked about taking on an ultra-endurance challenge to raise money for charity, but we never quite had the push to sit down and properly plan it.
That changed when the Hardest Adventures Organisation reached out to us with the opportunity to take on the Machu Picchu trek. It gave us the motivation to finally turn those ideas into reality, and we decided to include it as one part of a much bigger fundraising effort, with an initial target of £1,000.
But once we got started, we quickly found ourselves asking, why stop there?
We began thinking bigger: if we were going to do this, we wanted to make as much of an impact as possible. That mindset ultimately led to the creation of the Cork to Cushendun challenge, where we put together a series of ambitious challenges to raise as much money as possible for Children with Cancer UK.

3. How did you come up with ideas for fundraising events? Have any of your ideas not worked out as planned? Are you particularly proud of any one fundraising event?

We came up with our ideas largely based on what would make engaging and entertaining content, things like a week of ice baths or attempting 10,000 calories in a day, but we also wanted some challenges to carry real personal meaning, such as dyeing our hair gold (which is the colour for childhood cancer awareness) or even shaving it all off.
The aim was for each challenge to become progressively more difficult as we reached higher fundraising milestones. Alongside this, we’ve also organised events including coffee mornings, comedy shows, and upcoming club nights to help raise even more.
We’re proud of all the challenges we’ve taken on, with standouts including shaving our heads and volunteering on a children’s cancer ward. That said, there are also personal milestones within it, one of the biggest for Shay is the upcoming comedy show. Going from not being able to speak in public at school to now performing stand-up and hosting an entire evening is something that means a huge amount on a personal level.

4. How did family/friends react when you first told them your idea to fundraise? Were you surprised at how supportive people were?

The support we’ve received, both at the start and even now, five months on, has been incredible. It hasn’t just come from close friends and family; we’ve had complete strangers come up to us, congratulate us, or send messages of support. It genuinely makes us feel proud to have that level of backing behind us.
That said, we’re still yet to meet anyone who truly believes we can run the entire length of Ireland in 15 days. Often, people laugh in our faces when we tell them, including our own families! In a strange way, though, that doubt just adds to the motivation to prove it’s possible.

5. What challenges have you faced whilst fundraising? Have you ever felt like giving up?

The biggest challenges have been the time commitment and the financial side of things. It’s something that isn’t often spoken about when it comes to fundraising, but it can be expensive to take on challenges like this. Even for the run alone, costs such as fuel, food, accommodation, and potentially support teams quickly add up, which is especially difficult as two university students.
Thankfully, we’ve had some great support along the way. We’ve partnered with Givestar after they connected with what we’re doing and invited us onto their All-Star programme, which provides a small grant to help support the challenges. We’re also now sponsored and open to working with more local businesses, whose support makes a huge difference.
Another challenge has been balancing everything alongside everyday life. Between training, content creation, brand partnerships and meetings, it can sometimes feel like a part-time job. That said, seeing the impact this is having makes it all worthwhile, and we feel incredibly grateful to be in a position to be able to do something like this, so not once have we ever felt like giving up.

6. Do you plan to continue fundraising in the future? How do you hope your work inspires other young people?

First on the agenda is to raise over £10,000 and run the entire length of Ireland in 15 days. Beyond that, we’d love to see the ‘C2C’ brand continue, maybe even take on running the length of the UK next!
As long as people are interested and we can keep raising money for charity, we’d happily keep doing this for years to come. We genuinely love what we’re doing, but first, we need to make it through Cork to Cushendun in one piece.
If what we’re doing inspires even one young person to donate, take on their own challenge, or simply realise that something that seems ‘impossible’ might be achievable, then we’ve already exceeded anything we thought possible when we started.
We came from this school and were no different to anyone else, and now we’re attempting something extraordinary, so why can’t you?

You can follow the boys' progress on their social media account @CorktoCushendun