A North Cork parish priest and GAA fanatic have raised more than €22,000 for the Irish Community Air Ambulance after climbing the eight highest peaks in Munster.
Fr. Eugene Baker and Pat Spratt from Buttevant took on the challenge over five days in September starting in Tipperary, before travelling to Kerry and finishing on top of Ireland’s highest mountain range. The pair climbed Galtymore, Mangerton Mountain, Mount Brandon, Baurtregaum, Caher East, Caher West, Beenkeragh and Carrauntoohil.
The final day saw the pair spend nine hours in the MacGillycuddy Reeks where they reached the summit of four peaks including Caher East and Caher West. This brought their total to eight peaks in five days.
Fr. Baker said: “We were amazed by the amount of people who donated. The Irish Community Air Ambulance is such a great cause and has helped many people in the Buttevant and surrounding areas that there is a great connection with the charity. We had some wonderful supporters who joined us for a day or two along the way. Initially, we planned on climbing the seven highest peaks of Munster but we actually ended up completing eight in total. For us, it was about overcoming challenges, whether it’s fitness or a fear of heights and we did that over the five days.”
The Irish Community Air Ambulance works in partnership with the National Ambulance Service and is tasked to treat serious and life threatening emergencies. The helicopter is based in Rathcool, Co Cork with its Volunteer Emergency Medical Responders on the ground in Dublin, Mayo, Donegal, and Wicklow.
The ground fleet includes six Advanced and Critical Care Emergency Medical Responder vehicles. They are staffed by Volunteer Doctors who volunteer their time and provide hospital-level interventions at the scene. By responding to the patient in the community quickly, the specialist doctors can intervene earlier, essentially bringing the Emergency Department to the patient and giving them the best chance of survival.
Micheal Sheridan, CEO of the Irish Community Air Ambulance said: “I want to say a massive congratulations and huge thank you to Fr Eugene Baker, Pat Spratt and all their supporters. It is not easy to get up day after day and climb a mountain but that’s exactly what they did. They even finished the week by scaling four peaks in one day and raised a massive €22,275 which is a significant amount of money for our charity. That would cover the full cost of at least six taskings for the helicopter or purchase vital equipment for our ground based Volunteer Emergency Medical Responders. We would not be able to expand our ground services to additional locations across the country without the support of community fundraisers like this and we are very grateful.”
