I am 29 years old and come from Limerick. After graduating from university
where I majored in finance, I spent four years working in the personal
finance industry in Dublin. My major sporting background is in rugby,
which I have played virtually all my life. I also spent a few years studying
the martial art of tae kwon do. In 2002, I left Ireland and spent the
next two years working and travelling all over the world from the US,
Australia and New Zealand to Nepal, South Africa, Antarctica, South America
and Canada.
While I was in Australia, I met Tori where we joined forces on our 5,000km
cycle across Oz. So why take on a challenge such as this one? Well, my
own outlook on life is that we all get one go at it, so I want to live
it to the max, challenge myself in every way that I can and at the end
of the day have no regrets about lost opportunity. This for me will be
the ultimate examination of my strength, my spirit and my character.
I was born and raised in Devon situated alongside the North Saskatchewan
river in Alberta, Canada. I graduated from John Maland Highschool and
I am currently twenty-one years old.
After graduating from school, I went to Bangladesh where I volunteered for Agriteam Canada as an apprentice filmmaker. My project consisted of urban services and advocacy for gender projects in Dhaka, Bangladesh documenting the garment workers. I also volunteered for UNICEF on an adolescent empowerment project in Mymensingh, Bangladesh. There I worked with a group of adolescents to help them develop a peer counselling program, providing basic skills to higher their family value. Our long-term goal is early marriage prevention.
I then found myself travelling throughout Asia to various countries before
heading for Australia where I spent a year working and travelling all
over the country. Paul and I met in Melbourne, Australia where we began
planning our cycle across Australia. This trip saw us travel 5,000km coast
to coast across Australia starting from Perth on the west coast and arriving
into Sydney two months later to complete an amazing journey which resulted
in us raising a little over AUS $400,000 for some of the most destitute
children all over the world.
And so to my next adventure, the Atlantic Rowing Challenge 2005. Both
Paul and I have been totally and utterly consumed by this challenge from
the first moment we discussed it. It will be the greatest achievement
either of us has ever accomplished and I suppose for me personally, it
will give me great pride as I aim to become the first Canadian woman ever
to complete this voyage. More significantly, it will give us all an enormous
opportunity to raise a massive amount of money for the millions of destitute
children all across the world.
