The Mourne Motorcycle Club will continue its impressive charitable work with their ninth annual charity event on Wednesday 17 June.
So far the Mourne club has raised more than £55,000 for a variety of charities and charitable causes and they hope this year will be no different.
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MMC charity group: back row – Richard Portis, Nigel Hamilton holding his daughter Emma, Noel Burrows, Mourne club Chairman Billy McLarnin, Patricia Hamilton holding her daughter Katie, with Richard Scott and Jimmy Brewster from Ballynahinch Lions. Front row – Adam McMullan along with Joanne Young from Macmillan Nurses on the sidecar, Ryan Hamilton on the solo motorbike, with Justin Kirk and Dean Colhoun on the quad.[/caption]
This year all money raised will be donated to Macmillan Nurses and one-year-old Emma Hamilton from Kilmore.
While the good work of the Macmillan Nurses does not need explained, young Emma’s story should be told. Emma and her twin sister Katie were born in the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital, Belfast, on March 4, 2014.
Katie spent her first two months in hospital as she weighed just 2Ibs 12ozs at birth, but Emma, born with a rare condition known as Congenital Central Hypoventilation Syndrome (CCHS), was to spend nine months in hospital before being discharged home.
CCHS is a rare genetic condition where the brain does not tell the lungs to breathe during sleep, although it can also occur with some individuals when they are awake.
Now Emma depends on a ventilator for her breathing and she is continuously monitored to ensure her oxygen and carbon dioxide levels are maintained at a safe level.
Less than 100 UK families live with CCHS and Emma is one of two children affected by the rare condition in Northern Ireland. There are approximately 1,000 people known to have the condition worldwide.
The event will be held at the Millbridge area of Ballynahinch on June 17.
Racing starts at 5pm and entry to the event will cost £4.
Every year since the event began the Mourne club has been helped by the Ballynahinch Lions and Keith Cullen of Country Fried Chicken, Ballynahinch, who has supplied trophies for the races every year. This year.Mr Cullen and the Ballynahinch Lions will continue to support and help the charity event.
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The fifteen charities that have benefitted from the Mourne club’s charity event so far have been: * 2007 – Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice in Belfast. * 2008 – Northern Ireland Kidney Research Fund and Marie Curie Cancer Care. * 2009 – Tiny Life and Autism Northern Ireland. * 2010 – Montalto Medical Centre and Friends of Cancer Centre. * 2011 – The British Red Cross and St. Johns Ambulance. * 2012 – Cash for kids and The Reece Burrows Cerebral Palsy Fund. * 2013 – The Lucy Parke Appeal and Grove House, Ballynahinch. * 2014 – The Ballynahinch Branch of Cancer Research and the Mitre Trust Spinal Injuries Unit, Musgrave Park Hospital.
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