Two Sligo brothers, one in London and one in Manchester, will be running all though this weekend to raise funds for Irish heart and stroke charity, Croí. They have already smashed their fundraising target by 1,000% and gained the support of well known sports people.
Conor McKeon lost his father suddenly last year. Now he and his cousin Karl McKeon have decided to take on the challenge of running four miles every four hours for 48 hours. It is called the 4/4/48 challenge.
Conor (27) has been in London for nine years while Karl (32) has been in Manchester for six years.
The charity means a lot to the family as they were there to support the family. Before Conor’s father Joe “Scobie ” McKeon past away late last year he had had much trouble with his heart and the family appreciated how the charity were there when they could not be.
Conor told The Irish World: “He had a lot of heart trouble over his life. He had five or six heart attacks. He had open heart surgery. He had as many stins as you can have put in. He had a defibrillator and pacemaker installed. He had a triple-bypass. He had had it all really. It ended up being that the last two heart attacks he had, they couldn’t actually do anything for him because they had done everything they could.
“He was working one day filling up his lorry and he just collapsed. That was it.
“Any time ‘Scobie’- That’s what we call my dad, that’s what everyone called him- Any time he had heart trouble, Croí would always give my mother accommodation in Galway, because we live in Sligo, so she wouldn’t have to worry about having to organise accommodation.
“We weren’t there so we couldn’t be organising things for her. It could happen in the middle of the night. They just looked after her so well and put our minds at ease knowing that there was an organisation like that that were able to look after her until we got home when things like that went wrong.”
Conor explains how the idea for this challenge came about: “There’s a US marine called David Goggins. He’s a motivational person now and does crazy challenges. The latest one he’s come up with was the 4/4/48.
“Karl text me about four or five weeks ago and said, ‘Fancy doing this?’ And I said, ‘Not a chance’.
“Then he convinced me that we could do it and we said we would raise money for Croí at the same time.”
The cousins’ social media page has already got attention from well known athletes including Irish Olypians, GAA stars, English rugby players, British international athletes and London Irish rugby team.
Especially poignant for the McKeons has been the support of former Sligo football coach Denis Johnson who is a coach with their local club Eastern Harps.
The lads say Denis Johnson’s words would convince any man he could anything.
“Paddy Barnes sent us a message, there’s a load of British athletes, London Irish rugby team are sending us videos. It’s just really taken off.
“One that has really hit home is Denis Johnson, a former Sligo coach and coach of our local club Easter Harps. He sent us a video that really lit a fire under us.”
Conor, who has been in London for nine years and is 27 years old, was playing minor football for Sligo before he made the move.
“I left Sligo nine years ago so I never had the opportunity to play senior at home but I know of him and Karl played under him. It’s just the way he speaks. He’s just a massive motivator.”
The lads’ local club at home is joining them in the challenge.
“Our local club back home Eastern Harps have now designated five players of the senior panel to run each leg: Five will be running the 8pm , another five are going to be running the midnight, another five are going to be running the 4am, all the way through our event. They’ve really backed us a lot.”
Conor and Karl begin their 4/4/48 challenge this Friday at 8pm and then continue to run another four every four hours until Sunday.
For more information and to donate, search 4_4_48 on social media.
