Strabane man’s marathon effort raises £5,000 for charity

A STRABANE man, who recently took on the world-famous London Marathon all in the name of charity, has expressed his heartfelt thanks to everyone who donated to his cause.

Seamus McAteer, a former Strabane postman who now pounds the pavement on the North Coast where he lives with his wife Joanne and children, completed the world-famous 26.2 miles in the sweltering London heat to raise money for Parkinson’s UK.

Seamus’ connection with the charity comes through his late uncle Seamus O’Kane, originally from County Derry who suffered with the disease before passing away in Oxford in 2023 where he had been living for a number of years.

Speaking after the gruelling trek, Seamus said: “It was tough going but I’m delighted to have completed the marathon. My uncle Seamus suffered from Parkinson’s for many years before finally passing away in 2023 and I wanted to be able to give something back to Parkinson’s UK as they did so much for Seamus and for others around the UK. I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who generously gave to this brilliant charity.”

A marathon veteran, London was Seamus’s sixth marathon, having completed Dublin Marathon five times previously.

Seamus set himself a target of £4,000 but has rocketed past that mark with the total currently sitting at more than £5,000.

The fundraiser is still open and anyone wishing to donate more can do so by visiting https://events.parkinsons.org and searching for ‘Seamus McAteer’.

“It was a long slog, yes, but I trained well for it, training four days a week. Building up slowly at first through easy, short runs, by the time it came to head to London I was up to 22 miles thanks to a steady tempo of training and speed work and all done whilst being both a full time postman and full time foster parent.

“On the day it was pretty tough going with thankfully no mishaps although I did suffer from the heat only nine miles into it, such was the beautiful weather, but managed to get past the post, coming in at just over six hours.

“I’m just delighted to have raised so much for Parkinson’s UK, helping them in their fight to find a cure for this disease and, if it helps just one person, then it’s worth it.”