Actor Colin Farrell has thanked the public for backing his charity marathon run for a friend with an agonising skin condition after a joint TV appearance prompted more than 400,000 euro in donations.
The Hollywood A-lister and Emma Fogarty, who is Ireland’s longest-surviving person battling the genetic condition epidermolysis bullosa (EB), starred on RTE’s flagship Late, Late Show on Friday night.
The Penguin star is running next Sunday’s Irish Life Dublin Marathon to mark Ms Fogarty’s recent 40th birthday – a milestone she thought she might never see.
She will join him in a wheelchair for the final 4km of the course – with each kilometre representing a decade of her life.
Ms Fogarty, from Co Laois, endures a constant battle against the most severe form of the rare, genetic disease (recessive dystrophic EB), with sufferers currently given a life expectancy of around 30-35 years.
Born with no skin on her left foot and right arm, she experiences excruciating blisters on her skin from the slightest touch – the condition is also known as Butterfly Skin.
Her and Farrell’s “Run to 40” challenge has now raised more than 500,000 euro, with Friday’s appearance on the Late, Late Show alone pulling in 415,000 euro.
The funds will support the charity Debra, which helps 300 people in Ireland living with epidermolysis bullosa.
Dubliner Farrell hailed Ms Fogarty as a “legend”.
“There are four forms of the condition and Emma has the severest one,” he said backstage on Friday.
“She is the third person in Ireland with her type of EB to reach the age of 40 – she’s a miracle really, and a legend.”
Speaking to host Patrick Kielty during the show, Ms Fogarty highlighted the challenge the 4km distance will pose to her.
“Four kilometres sounds very little to a lot of people – there’s people here who probably run 10km every day or 5km or whatever,” she said.
“For me, that’s going to be a very long journey because potholes, ramps, even a pebble on the road – I will feel every one.”
Debra chief executive Jimmy Fearon said he is in a “state of shock and absolute excitement” at the public’s response to Friday’s show.
“I can’t believe that this has been achieved,” he said.
“Emma and Colin were outstanding and we are overjoyed with the funds raised – the good things we can do for families with EB is what this is all about.”
– To support the fundraising initiative visit debra.ie/runto40 or call (00353) 01 902 3938.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here