Ringsend club rows in for Karl

Gabija Gataveckaite

A ROWING club in Ringsend has launched a special fundraiser in aid of one of its members, who is undergoing leukemia treatment. 

St Patrick’s Rowing Club will be rowing a million metres on March 30 for Karl Doyle, who has been a member of the club for 17 years, in an event called the ‘1 Million Metres for Karl’.

The club will be welcoming fellow rowing clubs and members of the public in a challenge to row a million metres on stationary rowing machines from 8am to 6pm outside the library in Ringsend.

“We’re trying to take away the financial burden from Karl and his family, as he has a child under the age of one and is recently married,” explained Eimear McCormack, PRO for the club. 

“If one goes to war, we all go to war,” she added. 

The 29-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia several years ago but it made a come back shortly before last Christmas.

“We’re hoping that Karl will be well enough to come down on the day as he is currently spending a lot of time in hospital and in an isolation ward,” Eimear added.

“He’s very overwhelmed that we would even consider doing this for him so hopefully he will be able to come down and pull even one stroke, to say that he took part.”

The club will be aiming to raise €5,000, however, the online GoFundMe page had already hit €3,000 in donations last week.

The organisers hope to generate extra income through the page and also through bucket col-lections and entrance fees on the day.

“We’re encouraging the public to come and pull a few strokes with us,” explained Eimear.

“We’re hoping to get a few hundred participants from other rowing clubs from the Dublin area and the east coast as well as some members from river clubs.

“We will have machines designated for those who want to donate and also for anyone who wants to try their hand at rowing,” she added.

The club expressed a lot of gratitude for the support they have already received.

“We’re very lucky to have gotten all the support even though we only launched a few days ago,” Eimear added.

“We’re encouraging the public to keep following the GoFundMe page as there’s a lot of action on the page and Karl will be making video messages himself.

If people are generous enough to donate, we’re extremely grateful,” she said.

St Patrick’s Rowing Club in Ringsend has 180 members and a committee of 13 members. It was founded in 1936 and was set up as a tribute to traditional coastal rowing.

Rowing originally was used to guide ships to shore which came from overseas.

From 1934 onwards, when ships had new navigation systems installed, there was no further need for rowers to go out the ships.

However, the club was established to keep the tradition of the ‘hobblers’ racing alive.