My name is Vinny Coffey, I am a personal trainer and avid trail runner from Cork.

On April 5th 2026, I will be taking part in the Marathon De Sables. A 270km, 7 day race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco. The MDS for short has often been called "the toughest footrace on earth". Over the course of 7 days, I will be running stages from the half marathon distance (which is the final day) up to 100km on the long day (the 4th day).

This is a self-supported race, meaning participants are required to carry all their food, equipment, sleeping gear, cooking utensils and clothes for the duration of the race. Temperatures for the race generally sit at around 40 degrees with unpredictable events such as sandstorms, even hotter weather and due to lack of cloud cover, cooler temperatures at night. We will be sleeping outdoors under a tarp.

Preparations for the race started in August of 2025 with race day set for April 5th 2026.

Throughout my training and as I prepare to take part in this race, I want to give back by raising much-needed funds for six year old Darragh Foley and the charities supporting his cancer treatment in Crumlin and Manchester.

Below, Darragh’s parents, Clare and Vincent, share Darragh’s story in their own words.

Darragh's story -

During the summer holidays Darragh developed a bump on his nose. This was first treated as a broken nose and re-set into position, but after bruising went down the nose still looked broken. We were lucky to meet an amazing doctor in the South Infirmary who listened to Darragh’s history and felt something wasn't right. She ordered an ultrasound and MRI which showed a mass on our son's nose. This was the hardest week of our life waiting for the biopsy results to confirm what we already knew in our hearts. Three days after the biopsy our son Darragh was diagnosed with a soft tissue cancer called rhabdomyosarcoma.

The type of cancer Darragh has is very aggressive and can be resistant to chemotherapy. We were immediately rushed to Crumlin under the care of the fantastic doctors and nurses in the St John's Ward. Darragh is undergoing 18 months of chemotherapy and will also need 7 weeks of radiotherapy targeting the nose and lymph nodes in his neck. Proton therapy isn't available in Ireland, so we need to go to Manchester for this treatment.

Darragh, aged 6, has an older brother James (age 8) and two younger sisters Laoise (age 4) and Caoimhe (age 2). His brother James has also had some health issues but thankfully is doing well. James was born with Down Syndrome and had open heart surgery at 4 months old. He had to get a PEG feeding tube last year because of permanent lung damage due to silent aspiration. Days can be hard as we need to care for his needs while also getting Darragh to all his appointments.

Darragh is the most caring, thoughtful, kindest little boy you could ever meet. He is always thinking of others and looks after his brother and sisters in our family. He watches over his older brother to make sure he doesn't run off and every morning he goes into Caoimhe’s room and lifts her out of the cot and then makes her a bottle.

We have set up this page to help our family with the expenses of cancer treatment while also caring for another child with additional needs. We have only been able to get to this point in treatment with amazing help from our friends and support from different charities. We have been so lucky to receive help from Aoibhinns Pink Tie, The Gavin Glynn Foundation, Bumbleance, Cork City Hospital Children's Club, Irish Cancer Society and Hand in Hand. Funds raised will not just help us but also all these amazing charities who support other boys and girls just like Darragh. We want to give back to these charities to help other families in our position.

Having a seriously ill child is one of the hardest roads we have ever walked but we continue to hope and pray for his recovery. We are continually grateful for all of the prayers and support we have received from our family, friends, neighbours and the wonderful community in Blarney. This is a journey we never thought we would be on, but we will forever be thankful for all the support we have received along the way.