Rosemary Foy, the sister of Donegal woman Brid Carr, shares the story of her family's drive to honour her last wishes.

Brid Carr

Women of Donegal will be out in force running and walking the RunDonegal Women’s 5K this April to support a local charity for women.

The annual event will be held on the 2nd April at 11am at the Finn Valley Centre in Stranorlar. This year, the 5K will raise funds for the Brid Carr Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

The fund was set up in memory of Glencolmcille woman Brid Car, who was a mum of three living in London with her husband Seamus when she passed away in 2014 following a battle with ovarian cancer. She was 54 years old.

Brid had trained as a nurse in The Mater Hospital in Dublin before moving to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where she was Urology Nurse Specialist.

During her chemotherapy treatment, Brid became a prominent campaigner with the charity Ovacome and worked to raise awareness of the disease. Her wish was that her family would continue her commitment to highlight ovarian cancer and support Ovarian Cancer Research.

Family of the late Brid Carr promoting the 2015 Run Donegal Women’s 5k. included are from left daughters Christine and Anna, Husband Seamus, son Tom and Sister Rosemary Foy. also pictured are organising committee, Brigeen Doherty James and Grace Boyle, and Patsy Doherty Photo Cristeph/Brian McDaid

Brid’s sister, Rosemary Foy and her family have been raising funds and spreading the word since 2015. They were delighted to learn that RunDonegal Womens 5k have selected the fund as this year’s beneficiary again.

“It’s brilliant news. We were so delighted with it. In 2015 we did a few fundraising events and we raised an awful lot of money which co-funded a 3-year PhD Scholarship in the Cork Cancer Research Centre in Cork,” Rosemary told Donegal Woman.

The fund reached a target of €50,000 in 2015. Rosemary and her family hope to raise just as much this year.

“We have the 5K event, then Brid’s husband plans to do a charity cycle in May. We’ll be setting up a Facebook group and JustGiving account for that again. The fundraising in 2015 went way beyond our expectations. It would be amazing if we could do it again,” Rosemary said.

The other aim of the fundraising events is to make more women aware of ovarian cancer.

“Ovarian Cancer is often called the silent killer. It’s unfortunate that it is usually so late that it’s diagnosed. The symptoms are very vague and it is often misdiagnosed. The worst thing about it is the ovarian cancer survival rate is about 20% and it hasn’t changed in the last 20 years. We think research is the only way to fighting it,” Rosemary said.

The Brid Carr Ovarian Cancer Research Fund co-funded the education of pHd student Ms Jennifer Quinn at the Cork Cancer Research Centre in 2016. This Research Centre was established to facilitate the interaction between scientists and clinical cancer specialists in the university hospitals. The Centre has a focus on poor prognosis cancers (i.e. those cancers with low survival rate), Ovarian Cancer being one of these.

 

Family of the late Brid Carr promoting the Run Donegal Women’s 5 in 2015. Included are from left daughters Christine and Anna, Husband Seamus, son Tom and Sister Rosemary Foy. Photo Cristeph/Brian McDaid

As the funding will be administered through Breakthrough Cancer Research and University College Cork, 100% of this donation will go directly to research. It is the vision of BCR and CCRC that investment in research and people is the way forward in making progress to fight cancer. This funding therefore, will not only contribute to Ovarian Cancer Research – but also to the training of an individual who will then be a specialist in ovarian cancer biology.

 

For more information about the symptoms of ovarian cancer visit www.cancer.ie

To support the Brid Carr Ovarian Cancer Research Fund visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/bridcarrfund or follow https://www.facebook.com/bridcarrfund/ for updates.