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Irish Life’s Louth worker who spent a day walking for charity did a 5km walk two days later

Staff in Irish Life, Dundalk with Paige Gernon (left) who took part in a fundraising walk at Irish Life in aid of the Down Syndrome Centre, North East and The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA). Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics

Paige Gernon taking part in a fundraising walk at Irish Life, Dundalk in aid of the Down Syndrome Centre, North East and The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA). Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics

thumbnail: Staff in Irish Life, Dundalk with Paige Gernon (left) who took part in a fundraising walk at Irish Life in aid of the Down Syndrome Centre, North East and The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA). Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics
thumbnail: Paige Gernon taking part in a fundraising walk at Irish Life, Dundalk in aid of the Down Syndrome Centre, North East and The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA). Photo: Aidan Dullaghan/Newspics
Margaret Roddy
© The Argus

“There were definitely blisters,” Irish Life worker Paige Gernon says of her 46km walk in aid of the Down Syndrome Centre North East last Friday.

Instead of clocking on at the Dundalk call centre on Friday morning, Paige set off on a 6km loop around the south side of town and continued doing so until the end of her working day that afternoon,

"It was a great day, it went really well. The weather was lovely and I’ve raised almost €9,000 so far,” says the Louth village resident.

She was accompanied by ten different colleagues on each loop which helped to keep her spirits raised and she says that it was only during the last twenty minutes of the final loop that she began to feel tired.

Paige was following in the footsteps of her colleague Brian Duff who undertook a similar walk last year to raise funds for Irish Life’s 2023 charities, Child Vision and the Gaven Glynn Foundation,

Each year workers at the company nominate charities to benefit from fundraising events, and Paige was inspired by her little niece Robyn Smyth to nominate the Down Syndrome Centre North East as one of Irish Life’s 2024 charity partners.

Representatives from the centre and also from the company's other charity partner Irish Motor Neuron Association (IMNDA) visited the offices at the Finnabair Industrial Estate on Friday to speak about their work.

And of course, four-year old Robyn was also there to congratulate her auntie Paige on her great achievement.

"Some of the other kids from the Centre were there as well as two other Irish Life families who have a nephew and daughter with Down Syndrome.”

Paige’s fiancé, Louth hurler Andrew Smyth and his teammates Ricky McKeown, Kyle Rafferty and James Costello, also called down to give their support.

After enjoying a well-earned rest on Friday evening, Paige had a busy weekend.

"I went to pick up my wedding dress on Saturday and on Sunday ended up doing a 5km walk for the local vintage club.”

At this rate, Paige will be running up the aisle when she marries Andrew in October!

There is still time to donate to the GoFundMe page for Irish Life charities and Paige would love to raise a total of €10,000 for a cause that’s close to her heart.