The members and staff at a centre in Wicklow that provides care for adults with physical and sensory disabilities are reaching the end of an arduous but very rewarding challenge that saw them give everything they've got for the month of September.
With a goal to cover 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometres) using the physiotherapy equipment available, it has been a mammoth team effort for all involved at Bray's Open Door Day Centre to achieve it, while raising valuable funds for the facility, which has been the only one of its kind in the county.
Three of those taking part came to the centre with different stories, all remarkable. One of them was even best friends with the great Irish rocker, Phil Lynott.
The Open Door centre first ran a successful 500 mile challenge in 2021, raising €3,285, and in 2022 the challenge was 1,000 kilometres (621 miles), which raised €1,626.
In 2023, the bar was set at 900 miles (1,448km) and raised €2,250, and the 2024 challenge was 900 miles (1,448km) which brought in €2,325. All of the funds are raised through sponsorship from members, staff and volunteers and this year, with a target of 1,000 miles, the hope is to raise the bar even higher with the final tally.
Development officer Suzanne Cox described the 41-year journey of the centre, when it was first located at Fatima House at the Dart station, then to a premises on Boghall Road, before its final destination in the bigger, brighter, purpose-built building on land bought from the Loreto Order in 1996.
Three local women started the centre, her mother, Mary Hackett, being one of them, alongside the late Olive Quinn and Pauline Hughes.
"It all started because there was a young girl, from Greystones, and she was only in her early 20s and had a brain haemorrhage," Suzanne explained. "And following surgery, in Beaumont, and then a long time in rehab, she was discharged home. And her parents asked was there anywhere she could go to do activities, meet other people facing similar circumstances? But there was nowhere. There are places for children up to the age of 18, and there are places for what they call geriatrics, 65-plus. But nothing for that cohort between 18 and 65.
"So that motivated Mary, Olive, and Pauline to go out and do a bit of research. They identified over 20 people who, because of their disabilities, were stuck at home, which also had a knock-on effect. Their main carer, their husband or wife or son or daughter, was also stuck at home minding them. So Open Door is two-fold. It gives the members something to do, and they all love it. They'd come here on Saturday and Sunday if they could, if we were open, but it also gives the carers a very much needed break during the week."
The service is part-funded by the HSE, which amounts to about 70pc of the funding, but the rest has to come from fundraising.
"That's what I do. I apply for grants, I organise any fundraising events, put out appeals. We depend on donations and fundraising events, really."
In terms of costs, physiotherapy alone is over €26,000 a year. Then, for a centre that has an abundance of activities from art and ceramics to all of the physical exercise, money has to be found to support them.
"We've just replaced the windows, and we had to dip into our reserve fund to do that," Suzanne said. "So we're going to have to try and find that money to replace it."
The centre currently has 60 members and can cater for up to 32 or 33 per day. A lot of them would come two or three days a week, some of them more frequently. There is just one physio. There is no waiting list, and new members just need a referral and an application form. As the name of the centre suggests, "anybody is welcome to come in".
At 22, the youngest person in the centre is Conor Brown, from Kilcoole, who has been attending since May this year. He was born with cerebral palsy and right side weakness, so needed regular physio, which he was getting in the children's services, but had nowhere to turn to once he hit 18, unless he went private which is very costly. Open Door proved a blessing.
Conor attends five days a week and is now independent enough, and strong enough, to get the bus to and from the centre. Having completed a business course in Bray Institute of Further Education, he plans on attending DCU next year.
"We have people in their late 70s, but we don't kick anybody out when they hit 65," Suzanne continued. "We can't cater for people with dementia or Alzheimer's because it's a very open building. We don't have the skills to look after somebody like that. It's physical disabilities. We have a lot of people who have had strokes, a lot of younger men who have had strokes, and it's fantastic to see them improve because that is something, through their physio, through their activities, they can actually improve and regain some mobility."
Suzanne, who has been working at the centre for nearly 18 years, thought a time would come when "maybe we won't need an open door". But they get referrals every day.
"People who have had strokes or been diagnosed with MS or Parkinson's or have had a road traffic accident. There's so many different reasons."
Another member is stroke survivor Kevin Moore. His story has been well-documented in the media and was an incredible tale of perseverance and endurance for him, and testament also to the dedication of the staff at Open Door.
At aged just 40, Kevin, from Rathnew, suffered a catastrophic stroke in January 2020 and was given a one per cent chance of survival. Following many months in hospital and then in rehab, he was referred to Open Door in August 2020.
Thanks to the assistance of the physio, Justyna Oleksiewicz, he eventually regained enough strength to set his own challenge, 'Kevin's 1 Mile Walk,' in May 2023, when he was in a wheelchair, raising €1,630 for the centre. Previously, he has credited Open Door not only because of the tremendous help, but because it also got him out of the house, where he was able to meet new people.
'Friendship" is a huge aspect of life at Open Door, Suzanne said, before introducing one of the centre's real characters, Alan Nolan (60).
He used to work in the post office and has been coming to Open Door "since the last millennium", he joked. In fact, it's 30 years. When asked if he didn't have the centre, where would he be, he answered, "dead, from boredom".
Originally from Ballybrack, Alan is now living in Foxrock in Dublin, he said. The move came from compensation he received after a horror motorbike accident, some £825,000, which was a lot of money when he got it.
With a near wicked sense of humour, Alan was able to recall the terrible collision, which happened in 1986, the same year Phil Lynott died. The death of the great rock star isn't just some random timestamp for Alan, because together with his cousins, the pair, he said, were great friends.
You can still donate to Open Door's appeal at: idonate.ie/fundraiser/OpenDoorBray1000milechallenge