Charity Rugby Tournament

In 2001 I lost my Mother to Bowel Cancer after a two-year battle, at the time of her death I went through all the usual processes that a person goes through in relation to a jbereavement like this.

I learned a lot about myself and began to understand what people who have lost to cancer might be going through, particularly my Paternal Aunt’s family (She died of Breast Cancer in 1988 and this left my Uncle with 4 children to look after at the time) and also our good family friends whose mother died of Cancer in 2014 and a very good friend of mine also died of lymphatic cancer in 2012. In more recent times my other Aunt also on my father’s side of the Family died of Motor Neurone Disease a disease of which there is no cure for. Coupled with that I like a lot of people nowadays battle with a mild form of depression, which can lead in some serve cases to be a major cause in a lot of suicides that we see today too.

Now enough of the downside to this story I heard you cry, the reason I’ve created this page is to try and give back by helping the global fight against these horrific diseases and also to remember my Mother, two Aunt’s and our good Family Friends with a charity rugby tournament in the West of Ireland this summer (Looking at the last weekend in August UK Public Holiday weekend of Saturday 26th).

It will be in aid of The Irish Cancer Society, IMNDA, MNR (Both Motor Neurone) & Aware. It will be a 4-team tournament initially consisting of one team from London (The club I play for called Finsbury Park), Swords from Dublin and Sligo from Connacht to join Ballyhaunis RFC to co-inside with their 40th anniversary celebrations.

We plan to make this an annual tournament and in 2022 when Ireland celebrates it’s 100 years of independence we plan to make it a Mayo wide tournament with other teams from Ireland, Britain and Mainland Europe hopefully attending too, to make it into a Festival of Rugby in the County.

The long term aims of this tournament is find cures for Cancer, Motor Neurone and Depression, as well as bringing in tourism and revitalising the county of Mayo and The Western sea board of Ireland as whole. Also, to grow Rugby’s participation in Mayo which will hopefully have a knock-on effect for Rugby in Connacht too. Which is quite apt seen that Ireland are currently bidding to host The World Cup in either 2023 or 2027.

Through my Job I plan to bring some former and possibly current Rugby internationals to this event too to highlight what we are trying to achieve and gather some support for it.

I have had initial talks with a representative from Mayo County Council (Irish Local Government) and the charities too, as well as some local community organisations in the surrounding towns and a local Radio station, all have expressed their support for this endeavour and are keen to see this happen.

I have tried numerous teams over the last few years all of which have failed and against some hostile opposition too in certain quarters I might add.

This is my final attempt if I don’t make this happen this time I will kick it to the curb as it has taken enough of my life away with it.

I was hoping to fund the cost of this myself however that has not been the case hence why I am now looking for crowd funding to help me with the costs of this dare I say Noble Endeavour.

I estimate that we need in the region £9-10,000 to do this, all money raised here and through other planned events (more information to come on social media) will go towards our tour costs which will include flights, hotel and travel arrangements whilst there, any extra money will be split between 3  wonderful UK Charites McMillian Cancer Care, MNDA (Motor Neurone Disease) & Sane (Mental Health).

I will be purchasing all the medals locally for all the teams and the Trophy for the winners of the Tournament too (Which I plan to name after my late Mother) from my own personal funds.

We are in the early stages however and all things are looking positive so far, yet without our club attending this tournament it will not go ahead.

Further to that depending on the money we raise I will also look at doing a Rugby weekend fundraiser again for McMillian Cancer Care, The Josh Carrick Foundation (Both Cancer), MNDA, J9 Foundation UK (Both Motor Neurone) & Sane (Mental Health), this summer before we go to Ireland, possibly at Allianz Park (The Home of Saracens where we had our Charity Tackle event back in Summer 2014).

So, any help that you can give will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and maybe I’ll see you in Ireland this coming summer.

Kind Regards,

Eamonn Gallagher.