RELAY For Life was a huge success in Ennis over the weekend as thousands turned out to support cancer survivors in Clare, raising over €25,000 with a record crowd.
Chair of the Clare Relay for Life Committee, Tara Donnellan says that the organisation “got amazing support from local businesses and are blown away by their generosity every year”.
“We had a record number of people there. On Saturday there was a constant stream of people walking the track and Sunday was a real family day so we were really pleased with the crowds there”, Tara explains.
The event in the Fairgreen benefitted from widespread community engagement as well as the support of local businesses throughout the county. “We definitely got great engagement from the community. We had over 75 cancer survivors come and join us for the opening lap and the survivors’ afternoon tea afterwards. It’s great to see all those cancer survivors coming together and being able to share their stories and talk to people who’ve been through the same things they are going through”, Tara adds.
Donations for the Irish Cancer Society’s events are still being counted online, with over €25,000 raised online not counting the numerous card and cash donations on the day of the Relay. Tara says they expect this figure to go up significantly once all donations have been counted. Members of the public can still donate online until June 30th.
“We also had about 2500 candle bags lit around the track Saturday evening. Each one of those candle bags were dedicated to someone who has been touched by cancer. So it was an amazing sight to see all the bags lit and to have engagement from the community and to make it personal to themselves by dedicating one of those candle bags”, Tara continues, highlighting the visual spectacle.
The Relay has become an annual event in the Ennis calendar and is supported by entertainment from a number of bands and musical groups in the town, something which Tara says adds to the spectacle of the event. “We had bands and entertainment all day, Saturday and Sunday, ranging from bands and kids music groups to dance groups. We had a ballet and also Breakthrough Dance came out as well”.
Then we had singers and performers from the Community Games, face painting, and caricatures. Lastly on Sunday we had about 200 motorcycles come in and do a lap from various motorcycles groups in the area. They organised that themselves which was an amazing spectacle on the last day”, the Chair notes.
With this year’s Relay now complete, attention for Tara turns to planning for 2027. “We’ve set our dates for next year already, it’s the 19th and 20th of June. Next year is our 10th anniversary so we’re hoping to make a really big splash next year”.
“The community has already started putting our heads together with some ideas. We are always looking for volunteers if anyone wants to get involved”, she adds.
