Long walk leads Athy student to MTV limelight

GILLIAN DEEGAN from Athy, Co Kildare, will step out in front of a global TV audience of 1.2 billion people tonight to present an award at the MTV European Music Awards in Berlin.

The 21-year-old design student at Waterford Institute of Technology won a competition set up by the show’s main sponsors, Sony Ericsson, which had her walking from Hamburg to Berlin along with 99 other competitors.

The Fan Walk competition saw seven Irish people join up with contestants from all over Europe in Hamburg 10 days ago. All competitors who finished the 300km walk within 10 days were promised tickets to tonight’s celebrity-soaked event. The 100 competitors were then asked to vote on an overall winner, who would go on to present the Best Newcomer Award at tonight’s show.

“I can’t believe all the other walkers voted for me to win,” said Deegan. “I was stuffing myself with sandwiches when they announced my name and the camera was on me so I was mortified by that.”

She said she had “a blast” over the past 10 days. “We were walking for about 24km a day and staying in youth hostels along the way. We were doing video updates along the way and generally having a ball – it was freezing though and while everyone else had sensible walking shoes I only had a pair of runners.”

Deegan has been out shopping in Berlin and said she was going to go for a “funky” look tonight. “I’m going for suit pants and some killer heels,” she said.

As one of the presenters, Deegan will get a special “goody bag” worth €12,000 – it includes a mobile phone, beauty vouchers and membership cards for exclusive clubs.

Tonight’s awards are presented by actor David Hasselhoff and singer Katie Perry and there will be live performances from Beyoncé, Robbie Williams, Green Day, Jay-Z and Leona Lewis. The awards are taking place at the city’s O2 Arena, but across town at the Brandenburg Gate U2 will perform a show that will be screened during the ceremony.