2024 #๐พ๐๐ข๐๐ฃ๐ค๐๐ค๐ง๐พ๐๐
Later today, 6th September 2024 our Camino for CRY begins – #TeamCRY fly out for our 8th Camino – the #EnglishWay (Camino Ingles).
There will be 27 of us heading off โ our biggest group ever! Some of the group walked with us on the first #CaminoforCRY and all of the group will walk remembering a loved one. Weโre incredibly grateful to the group who are committed to walking 120Km over the next week.
We will remember all of our families and friends along the way and especially when we reach Santiago de Compostela late next week. We’ll update as we travel.
#teamCRY this year is made up (in no particular order!) by Liam & Marie Herlihy, Eoghan Walsh, Sally Carney, Khaalid Axmed, Joe & Rosaleen Browne, Kevin Tuohy, Louise Bevans, Siobhan Cunningham, Jude Bromley, Katrina Connors, Aileen Kennedy, Miceal Bohan, Shauna Bohan, Linda OโMahony, Maeve Butler, Nora Power, Bridie Bevans, Lou Gaffney, Karen Conlon, Bernard Cumiskey, Catherine Clancy, Jim & Kay Chawke, Aidan and myself.
To support or sponsor any of the team head to: https://cry.ie/index.php/donate/
I’ll join the team once again, and for me personally, Iโll make this journey always remembering my much loved, always missed and gorgeous niece, Jen (Jenny Jewel). My story is below:
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My Story:
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I worked with Michael Greene, Trustee & Co Founder of CRY 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. When Michael and Marie set up CRY I did the paperwork & admin to help. However, it became personal to me on the 22nd of May 2002 when my niece Jenny OโRiordan died suddenly. Jenny (Jenny Jewel to the family) was my sister Kateโs only daughter.
Jenny had spent one summer in HomeBond with usโ she called it her โsummer jobโ 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 making great friends. She particularly loved the location and couldnโt have been any happier there โ 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. I will never forget the call โ I was just in the door from a holiday and Kate called to say Jenny had been taken to Blanchardstown Hospital. I collected Kate and we drove to the hospital but I think I knew at the time that she would be dead when we arrived – she was. Jenny had died while sitting with her best friend Sinead โ looking at booking flights for a holiday. Jennyโs sudden death devastated all of our lives but especially Kate and her brother JJ โ she was 26, beautiful, bright, kind and had so much to live for. Her friends and colleagues were heartbroken too. Time helps you to learn 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 University Hospital and daily I am in contact with families who approach us for help, emotional support or to offer to fundraise. I understand a little where they are coming from โ 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.
Jenny OโRiordan
1975-2002
๐๐พ๐ฌ๐ฒ๐ช ๐๐ซ๐ซ๐ผ
CEO, CRY Ireland
#Charity #Fundraiser #FriendsOfCRY #OurFantasticFamilies #Camino #CaminoForCRY #SantiagoDeCompostela