Four athletic inmates from Magilligan Prison have raised more than £2,000 for charity after completing a gruelling half marathon.

The money was handed over to three charities, Shine a Light Children’s Charity, the Darren McClelland Appeal Fund and MacMillan Cancer Relief at a special presentation in Magilligan today.

The prisoners, who ran 101 laps of the prison football pitch, collected the grand total of £2,071.80 from other inmates, prison staff and family and friends.

The prison’s Head of Sport and Recreation, Principal Officer Ivan McClelland said the prisoners had approached him to seek permission to do a charity run.

“They all run as part of their regime and decided to put this to good use by running a half marathon for their particular charity. They approached me to see if I would let them do it.

“They put in a lot of hard work and collected the money. As a result, three charities are going to benefit from their efforts, so that some good is going to come out of their time in prison.”

Billy McCrory from Shine a Light praised the prisoners’ commitment:

“It shows they are prepared to put something back into the community to help others. We try to improve the quality of life of sick children and this money will help us in our work.”

One of the inmates Mark Lamont chose the Shine a Light Charity because it had given comfort and happiness to his girlfriend’s young cousin before his tragic death from leukaemia.

Mark’s girlfriend Sinead McDermott said: “David Gillespie, a young cousin of mine was dying from leukaemia. Billy McCrory from Shine a Light met him in hospital and found out he was a Tyrone fan.

“Before the All-Ireland final in 2003 the charity arranged a visit for him to meet the players. Unfortunately he died just after the final and the team went to his wake and brought the Sam Maguire trophy.

“Mark chose Shine a Light because of the great work they do to help terminally ill children.”

Derry man Sean McMonagle raised money for the Darren McClelland Appeal Fund which helps a young Shantallow boy, who is paralysed from the neck down.

The eight-year-old boy is the son of Sean’s childhood friend, Darren.

Sean said: “The money will go directly to enhance young Darren’s quality of life. I contacted his father to get his permission and he was delighted.

“Prisoners are always getting bad press but this shows that we can put in the effort to do some good, not for ourselves but to help charities.”

Darren’s mother Orla said: “It was a lovely gesture from Sean. When he and Darren were younger they were best friends. It was nice of him to think of young Darren.”

Stewart Haire and David Brown both ran the 13 miles to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Relief.

Despite having a knee injury Stewart, who suffers from diabetes, managed to complete the course.

He said: “It was very tough but I was determined to finish. We do athletics every Tuesday and Thursday and we wanted to see if we could do it and raise money for a good cause.”

MacMillan area fund-raising manager Paul Sweeney praised their efforts.

“We are delighted by their support. It is important that we get help from all walks of life. I would like to thank the Prison Service for organising everything and Stewart and David for thinking of us. It is commendable that they are thinking of people in their local communities.”


Note to Editors

Seamus Loughrey will be taking photographs of the cheque presentation. He can be contacted on 07770833830.

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