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Woman says Beara care centre has ‘saved her life'

July 2nd, 2017 11:50 AM

By Southern Star Team

Katherine Connery started her challenge on June 5th.

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A wheelchair-bound woman has set herself the challenge of completing six mini-marathons in 12 months to support a meditation and care centre in West Cork that she claims has saved her life.

BY JACKIE KEOGH

 

A WHEELCHAIR-bound woman has set herself the challenge of completing six mini-marathons in 12 months to support a meditation and care centre in West Cork that she claims has saved her life.

The 57-year old Limerick woman Katherine Connery who has a degenerative spinal condition and spina bifida, started her self-imposed challenge on June 5th last at the VHI women’s mini marathon in Dublin and will finish on May 5th 2018 at the Bon Secours Hospital Great Limerick Run. During her darkest days, Kathrine said she found a leaflet that a counsellor had given her and it led her to the Dzogchen Beara Care Centre on the Beara Peninsula. 

In December 2015, Kathrine said her battle with illness had pushed her to the edge. She said: ‘All conversations became about wheelchairs, machines to help me breathe, tubes in the stomach for food, hearing aids, gadgets that would enable me to talk, when I could no longer do it alone.

‘Wherever I looked I saw only darkness and the spectre of suicide seemed to whisper: “There is an easier way out...”.’

But at the care centre in Beara she said the darkness dissipated and ‘I truly came home to myself again.’

Katherine said she hopes that her efforts in completing the marathons will raise awareness of ‘this inspirational place.’ 

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