𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 𝐂𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐂𝐑𝐘
Next Friday, 4th September, our Camino for CRY group (#teamCRY) fly out to walk the Portuguese Coastal Camino. We will remember all of our families & friends of CRY along the way, especially when we reach Santiago de Compostela next week. We’ll update our socials as we walk. Our walk begins in Baiona, we then walk on to Vigo, Arcade, Pontevedra, Caldas de Reis, Padron and we’ll reach Santiago de Compostela on the 10th having covered 126km.
The Camino is a vital fundraiser for CRY, and we are incredibly grateful to the team for taking on this challenge and fundraising to make it possible. The funds raised by the team will help us continue providing vital support to more families through our Family Support Programme and our Freephone CRY Helpline, offering a listening ear to families who have been affected by the loss of a loved one through Sudden Cardiac Death, as well as those living with an inherited cardiac condition.
The money raised will also help us support vital research through our sponsorship of Cian O’Donnell’s PhD project with #CureHeart at the University of Oxford. We are so grateful to the team for their commitment, generosity and determination. Their fundraising will make a real and lasting difference to the lives of families affected.
To donate to any of the team taking on the challenge you can do so here:- https://cry.ie/index.php/donate/
Lucia Ebbs of CRY – My Story:
I’ll join the team again, and for me personally, I will make this journey always remembering my much loved, always missed and gorgeous niece Jen (Jenny Jewel).
I worked with our late Co-Founder of CRY, Michael Greene, since the late 80s. I was working with Michael when his son Peter died suddenly in 1996 and saw the heartbreak and devastation it caused. It became personal to me on 22nd of May 2002 when my niece Jenny O’Riordan died suddenly. Jenny (Jenny Jewel to the family) was my sister Kate’s only daughter.
Jenny had spent one summer in HomeBond with us – she called it her ‘summer job’ in her gap year. Michael got to know Jenny well and he supported her after she returned to college and completed her Masters. She went on to work with KPMG (now known as BearingPoint) and spent two years there as a consultant and loved every minute of it and making great friends. She particularly loved the location and couldn’t have been any happier there – unless they could have moved closer to Grafton Street for the endless shopping. We always believed BT must have had a drop in cosmetic sales that summer!
Jenny died suddenly on 22nd May 2002 from Cardiomyopathy on her father’s 50th birthday. Jenny’s sudden death devastated all of our lives but especially Kate, and her brother JJ – she was 26, beautiful, bright, kind and had so much to live for. Her friends and colleagues were heartbroken too. Time helps you to live with it, but you never forget. Nothing is ever the same and no family event or occasion happens without you knowing someone is missing.
My office is in the CRYP Screening Centre in Tallaght and I am in daily contact with families who approach us for help, emotional support, or to offer to fundraise. I understand a little where they are coming from – every story is different and every time I take a call from a bereaved family, I understand a little of where they are coming from. My own three boys are patients in the CRYP Screening Centre, so I understand the concerns of a parent who needs to come to the Centre for screening and the peace of mind that comes with that visit.
Dealing with a bereaved family does not get any easier with time but I hope we are helping families to get some peace of mind and to come to terms with their loss.
#RememberingJennyJewel❤️❤️
Jenny O’Riordan
1975-2002
