Miles and Myles

There were plenty of exhausted Concern employees in the Dublin office last week. On Thursday, a group of us swam a mile in the pool in Trinity College to raise money. The “Mile for Myles” was in memory of Myles McDonagh, from Ballinasloe, Galway, who was tragically knocked down and killed at the age of nine in 2006.

Myles’s parents Noelin and Diarmuid had both worked for Concern in Bangladesh in the 1980s. In fact, they first met while working there.

After Myles’s accident, his family decided to do some fundraising for Concern’s education programme in Bangladesh in his memory. In late 2008, Myles’s family came up with the “Mile for Myles” idea and raised over €5,000 for Bangladesh.

Concern staff decided to do a “Mile for Myles” to raise money for Concern’s Amader School Project in Bangladesh.

Swimming a mile was not easy – it’s 65 lengths in total! I was definitely one of the slower members of the Concern team. It is incredible to think that Myles’s friends and cousins, who are only children themselves, swam a mile as well.

We at Concern, both in Ireland and Bangladesh, are extremely grateful to Myles’s family and friends for all of their hard work fundraising.

This blog post was written by Derval O’Brien of Concern’s fundraising department.