This article is from page 20 of the 2011-06-14 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 20 JPG
KILMALEY woman Emma Healy got a little help from her friends – 15 of them to be precise – last week when she went to run the Flora Mini Marathon in Dublin. The Clare ladies organised themselves to run alongside Emma and raise sponsership for her trip as a volunteer with the Building of Hope next year.
“They were absolutely fantastic and we had a great day,” said Emma, who works in Ennis General Hospital.
But this is not the first time she has been given a helping hand, or in a recent case a helping head, chest and lots of legs. “We had a waxathon and, fair play to them, the Kilmaley United soccer team turned out to be waxed and shaved. One chap got his whole head of hair and beard shaved off, another got his chest waxed and lots of them got their legs waxed – it was a brilliant night,” Emma told The Clare People .
Also helping on the night at the Bogdale House in Kilmaley were pals Lorraine Tuohy and Anne Killeen, who fed the starving hoardes, as well as Emma’s sister Martina, who did the waxing, and local barber Joey Woulfe, who took care of the shaving.
Irish Pride and Brendan Keane butchers sponsored the barbecue for the waxathon and Barry Lynch of Lynch’s Centra on the Gort Road sponsored lunches for the women on the marathon.
Now Emma – who teaches Irish dancing to adults and children – is planning a fundraising ceili for October 14 in the Auburn Lodge when Michael Sexton’s two-piece ceili band will be playing. The fun will start at 9.30pm.
This will be 27-year-old Emma’s first trip to Africa and she doesn’t know, as yet, what she will be doing.
“Olive told me it could be anything but she did ask me to bring my dancing shoes to teach some of the local kids how to do a bit of dancing.”