One Wicklow woman is making great strides and raising money for her community.
It’s stories like this that can inspire each and everyone one of us to do more.
Mandy Finlay, a woman who has Down Syndrome, has already raised thousands of euro by walking one million steps around her local area of Bray.
The 47 year old has been walking to raise funds for her local social club, Lakers, which provides support for people with intellectual disabilities.
The community centre would usually raise funds throughout the year but the pandemic has put a halt to all of that, so Mandy has found her own way of raising money and giving back.
Since March she’s walked one million steps. Mandy originally started walking to lose weight but her goals soon changed to charity, as she started walking to fundraise money in October.
Mandy had set a target of one million steps for charity, and just this weekend she reached her goal.
Frieda Finlay, Mandy’s mother, told RTÉ News that Mandy “had Zoom classes starting in March and then she’d go out walking for two hours and she’s been fully occupied and it’s been fantastic.”
Mandy’s father Fergus, who was the former CEO of Barnardos and now the Chairman of Lakers, told Newstalk his daughter “smashed” her target over the weekend.
“We can’t wait to get back in to Lakers but god knows when that is going to happen, in the meantime we have people like Mandy to inspire us,” he said.
You can check out Mandy’s fundraiser here. Image via iDonate.
