Strabane man runs first marathon in mum’s memory

A STRABANE man will attempt to complete his first ever marathon later this year in memory of his mum – however he has a long way to go before he catches her up.

Daniel ‘Danje’ Casey aims to run the 26.2 miles in November as a way of continuing his mum, Cicely’s, legacy. Cicely ran 18 marathons during her life in aid of the Foyle Hospice. She passed away last December.

Speaking this week as his own training is reaching the 12 mile mark, Mark says his memories of the inspirational lady are keeping him on the right track.

“It’s one of those things,” Daniel said. “My mother is still with me in my head and she’s keeping me going.”

He continued, “I want to continue her legacy in supporting a service which brings so much help and assistance to local families at difficult times. And I’m getting a lot of support from people at the moment – which is great.”

Daniel has set a target of £5,000 that he would like to raise for the Foyle Hospice, and as well as having collection buckets in local shops has set up a Go Fund Me page.

Also, in an unique twist to his running, he plans on completing the 26.2 miles on November 6 by running the old route of the Strabane Half Marathon and then immediately after, the current route.

“My mother did 18 marathons, all for Foyle Hospice – Belfast, Derry, London, New York and more… and I thought, since all I’d ever done is half marathons, I would try and keep her legacy going and do a full marathon,” Daniel remarked. “And I’ll have some people running some miles with me too. At the minute I have 30+ runners coming in to do some miles with me on the day.

“With the two half marathons back to back, I start at the Farmer’s Home and then finish at Melvin. Slow and steady wins the race.”

• To donate to Daniel’s funding raising mission, search for ‘Danje’s Marathon Duo’ on www.gofundme.com