Mayo man to cycle across Europe for charity

A Mayo man is among three students who will cycle 1,400km from Munich to Ireland for charity.

Mike Heaney from Claremorris, will be joined by Emmett Judge from Drogheda and Milosz Kozielec from Tallaght as they take on the ‘An Bealach Fada’ (The Long Way) challenge.

Their endeavour, which gets underway on August 14, will raise funds for Parkinson's Ireland and the Alzheimer Society of Ireland.

The lads are all engineering students at UCD. Their epic 12-day challenge will see them journey through Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium and France before hopping on the ferry to Ireland and completing the last leg of their adventure.

As if this challenge wasn’t hard enough, the trio have a set of rules in place for the cycle. They will be navigating their entire journey using paper maps and compasses exclusively.

They have chosen to start from Munich, as they are currently living there for the Summer, as part of their course.

Over the 12 days, they will be averaging 110km per day on the road. Mike expresses that ‘it’s going to be hard… but the support we’ve seen from everyone so far has been unreal and it really keeps us going’.

The Claremorris man has been hard at work training locally as ‘cycling around Mayo is really beautiful’ He has plans to celebrate at The Ranch in Claremorris upon return, as they have heavily contributed to the fundraiser. He also plans to sleep for the entire week before he travels back to Dublin for his graduation from UCD!

They hope that with the help of the public, they can help patients who are suffering or the families of hose deeply affected with Parkinsons or Alzheimers.

To follow the teams progress and donate to the fundraiser visit their website and social media platforms @anbealachfada.