April – Sports Personality

APRIL

SEANIE MEYLER (ATHLETICS)

The first lockdown last Spring seemed to bring the best out of people and that was certainly the case with Seanie, who ran a full 26.2 miles marathon on his treadmill in order to raise much needed funds for the nursing staff’s Comfort Fund at the South West Acute Hospital, Enniskillen. Meyler undertook the challenge on his own 54th birthday, inspired by his wife, Paula, a nurse in the Intensive Care Covid-19 unit in the hospital and he was blown away by the generosity of local people, who donated a whopping £29,008.58 to his cause!

Voting Opens Tuesday 2nd March

Ulster Herald Sports Personality Awards 2020 in association with MFC Sports, LIVE winners reveal, Wednesday 10th March, 7pm via Facebook and Twitter

Seanie was featured in the Ulster Herald on Thursday, June 18, 2020 

Seanie shows the way forward with marathon fundraising effort

BY CHRIS CALDWELL

RUNNING a full marathon on a treadmill in his own shed was some achievement by Seanie Meyler, but the fact that he raised over £29,000 in the process means he has been named the UH Sports Personality of the Month for April.

The former Tyrone and Omagh St Enda’s player was inspired to take on this fundraising run by his wife Paula and her nursing colleagues in the Intensive-Care Covid19 unit in the SWAH in Enniskillen. All proceeds- £29,008.58 -from the challenge, which took place on Seanie’s 54th birthday went to a Comfort Fund for these 40 plus nursing staff in the unit.

And it’s those recipients, their commitment, dedication and the care they provide that kept Seanie going throughout his 26.2 miles on the treadmill after very little training ahead of it.

“The most I had done on the treadmill was ten miles and it was sweltering. I had only did 17 miles on the road as I hadn’t been doing as much training,” explained the veteran of six marathons on the road. He continued: “Even with the door and window open in the shed it gets very hot so that was an extra challenge.

“I had lots of water and cold cloths to help. I also got a few blisters on my feet but I was always going to do it. And had family support to encourage me.

“The fact you hadn’t been training and hadn’t done your miles, I knew it was going to be tough. But if you set a goal and you have a strong mindset – if you have a sense of purpose of doing it for the nurses, that’s always going to get you there, you know you’re going to do it,” he explained.

“You know it’s tough but when you have that picture [of what you’re doing it for] ahead of you, you were always going to do it, so that was the purpose, doing it for something bigger than yourself..

“Paula works with a team of dedicated and hard-working nursing staff to give top class attention and nursing care to individuals who are in this high-risk unit.

“I saw the Mayo hurler Cathal Freeman ran a marathon in his back garden with a sliotar and a hurl and thought I would like to do something similar to support Paula after she was transferred from the Day Procedure Unit in Omagh to this Intensive-Care Covid19 unit while we sit at home safe.

“The money raised will go directly to the nurses in the unit for them to purchase anything which will make their jobs and days working on the frontline that little bit easier over the weeks and possibly months ahead.”

Initially, Seanie aimed to raise around £4,000 for his chosen charity, but for whatever reason, his challenge gained plenty of traction on social media and with it the donations rolled in, much to his delight.

“I was really, really taken aback because I’d set the goal for £4,000,” he explained. “It got traction on social media and it landed with people. There are so many other people doing things longer than mine, people doing double marathons and 100 mile runs and making smaller amounts, but that’s the nature of things, people grabbed onto this for whatever reason and people tapped into it.

“That day of it, when people saw the pictures it connected with them.

A picture sparks off interest and people shared it, liked it and moved it around. Beforehand it’s just something that’s going to happen but when it’s happening and people see the pictures and the videos that can be quite powerful.

“But credit to everyone who gave and credit to everyone who did those other things and raised money for all those other things, it’s been great to see.”

Since Seanie’s shed marathon, there have been plenty of other amazing feats of athletic ability for fundraising purposes, including David Graham’s 100 miles in 24 hours at Lissan House, Cookstown, Mark Farquhar’s backyard ironman challenge and Niall Heaney’s 55 miles around Loughmacrory at the weekend, and Mr Meyler has been thrilled by the generosity and effort of so many.

“There has been a lot of creativity but that sense of giving has shone through and when you look around now with what so many other people are doing, it’s amazing what people can do. There are people doing 100-mile runs, 24 hour runs, so it’s amazing what can be achieved when you want to,” he observed.

“There has been a transformation with people wanting to give and there’s that thing of people wanting to make a difference because they are idle, but then there’s that fear that when you get back on the treadmill – pun intended – of the routine/ work thing where you fall back and forget all these other things that can still be done.

“Maybe people will stand up and admit they enjoyed doing that, that they don’t need a Covid-19 to be the catalyst, that they can actually do these things without that but we’ll see how people’s behaviour adapts with the dropping of restrictions and it will be interesting to see how people react.”