CLAIRE Barrett from Crookhaven has raised thousands over the past decade for various charities and has already raised just over €35,000 this year so far. Claire, who at 70 is as fit as a fiddle and driven by passion, raised over €74,000 last year from Crookhaven alone!
‘Our little village has about 50 people that live in it. In summer, that can swell to about 6,000 people. Last year we raised €15,000 for cystic fibrosis in Crookhaven and this year we have raised €16,000 just for cystic fibrosis alone.’
When asked how Claire can manage to raise such vast sums from such a small community she said ‘I take on doing 11 or 12 pub quizzes. They’re known as the Wednesday pub quizzes in Crookhaven. I do it between Barleycove Hotel, Nottage’s Bar, O’Sullivan’s Bar and the Crookhaven Inn. The quizzes benefit different charities every year, but they are always local such as West Cork Down Syndrome, Laura Lynn, the local school, the Schull Community Hospital, Bru Columbanus and West Cork Rapid Response.’
Claire receives tremendous support from the community and attributes a lot of her success to being completely transparent in all their dealings. ‘It’s out there on the table in front of everybody. I make sure I get receipts from everybody we give money to. And I love what I do.’
Claire fundraisers for many organisations, but her main charity is cystic fibrosis.
‘I started fundraising for cystic fibrosis about 20 years ago. My next door neighbour, in their holiday home here in Crookhaven, had four children, two boys and two girls. One of the boys and one of the girls had cystic fibrosis and sadly the beautiful Jane passed away around 20 years ago. She was only 27 and a young school teacher with her whole life ahead of her.’
At the time Jane’s brother had approached Claire to help with some fundraising for a sterile unit at CUH which was then called Build4Life. Claire agreed and raised an incredible amount of money in West Cork and has dabbled in fundraising ever since, but has seriously focused on it in the last 10 years by doing the International Walk for Cystic Fibrosis.
Claire is leaving for Malaga on Tuesday September 16th where she will join a group of about 35 other fundraisers on the annual walk. The group has raised an enormous sum of over €3m for the Cystic Fibrosis Ireland charity, of which Claire has raised well over €10,000 a year on her own.
The walk takes place in a different country each year. Previous walks have seen Claire commit to the sponsored 100km in Malta, Madeira and Romania, to name just a few.
To support Claire and for further information on how to donate to her cause email [email protected] or visit www.cfireland.ie.
