A group of kayakers with spinal-cord injuries are making their way from Co Longford to Clare, raising money and spirits on their way, writes ROSITA BOLAND.

‘IT’S A BIT of a change from practising on Poulaphouca reservoir – there are no big Shannon cruisers you have to try and avoid there. We’re not used to backwash yet.” Paul Kinsella has just kayaked from Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim to Lanesborough, Co Longford for the first time. This is Spinal Injuries Awareness Week, and Kinsella is one of five people with spinal-cord injuries who are participating in a week-long sponsored 200km kayak challenge from Carrick-on-Shannon to Killaloe, for Spinal Injuries Ireland (SII).

Kinsella was giving a friend a crossbar-lift home from work on his bike 14 years ago, when he hit a pothole on Clanbrassil Street. His friend hit the wheel of the bus that was travelling beside them, and was ricocheted backwards to safety. Kinsella went under the bus. He broke his back in two places.

“I was working as a bricklayer and it was just when the money was starting to get good,” he says wistfully. He could have been killed, but it’s almost impossible to initially see anything positive when you transform from being an able-bodied person with a physically demanding job, to being paralysed from the waist down.

Plans for this year’s run were under threat of being abandoned last month when three of the group’s specially-adapted kayaks were stolen from Blessington, Co Wicklow. The Great Outdoors shop in Dublin offered to loan kayaks, and so the challenge was on again. This year, the group have already raised €13,000 and their target is €30,000. The money raised will support SII’s outreach programme.

It’s Kinsella’s first time to participate in the kayak challenge, which is being accompanied by several members from Sandycove Kayaking Club.

For Christine Bradshaw, this is her third kayaking trip. She broke her neck 10 years ago when learning how to horse-ride. She was at the last fence of a cross-country course in Wicklow when, as she explains laconically, “I went over the fence and the horse didn’t.” She knew right away that something was wrong, because she had no sensation in her body. Fortunately, there was someone on site who knew it was crucial not to move her. Despite breaking her neck, she now walks unaided. “My balance is not great,” she says, “but 10 years ago I didn’t know if I would ever walk again, so to actively take part in a kayak challenge that an able-bodied person would think twice about is more than I ever hoped for.”

Noelle Daly’s kayak was one of the three that was stolen, and she is still getting used to her new one. In 1981, when she had just left school, she crashed her motorbike while going around a muddy bend. Ironically, she had been working in the National Rehabilitation Hospital as an assistant nurse, to see if she would like the job: “I ended up being a patient there.”

She uses a wheelchair, and this is her first time on the kayak challenge. “I’ve been training so much, my arms are like the Michelin man now,” she jokes. “It was definitely a bit choppy and wobbly in the water the first day, but we’re getting used to it. The wind is what we have to watch for; the rain doesn’t matter.”

“I’m a statistic,” Graham Bolger observes. A musician and record producer, he was driving to a recording studio near Dublin airport five years ago when his bike skidded on a slippery surface and he fell awkwardly. He was paralysed from the waist down.

This is his first time on the kayak challenge. “I wanted to do it because I was very lucky; I coped okay after the crash, but I know it takes a huge mental toll on some people, and the outreach programme is really crucial to helping them.”

They’ve only been two days out so far, but they are already impressed with the reaction they are getting along the way from the public. “People are waving, throwing money in our buckets, seeing us off when we’re loading up, and welcoming us when we get out of the water for the day,” Bolger says. “That’s been great.”

The group hope to come out of the water each day at 5pm, so if they are passing through your area, cheer them along and throw some money into their buckets. If you’re interested in being a sponsor, see www.siairl.org.

FOLLOW THE ROUTE

TuesdayLanesborough, Co Longford to Hodson Bay, Co Westmeath

WednesdayHodson Bay to Shannonbridge, Co Offaly

ThursdayShannonbridge to Portumna, Co Galway

FridayPortumna to Dromineer, Co Tipperary

SaturdayDromineer to Killaloe, Co Clare