Meath man Daniel Cooney is celebrating a significant milestone of raising €19,500 for rescue dogs in Ireland after completing his toughest challenge yet – scaling Ireland’s highest peak 15 times.
Cooney, who has a special love of dogs, is particularly passionate about bringing people and dogs together to help find new homes for rescue dogs.
Having climbed all 275 Irish mountains over 600 metres (known as the Vandeleur Lynams list) last year and carried a door strapped to his back up Carrauntoohil earlier this year, Cooney wanted to challenge himself even further by testing himself physically and mentally.
That’s where the idea to scale Carrauntoohil 15 times to match the elevation of Mount Everest (8,848 metres) came from, naming the challenge ‘Everest for Second Chances’.
Over 42 hours, the avid hiker climbed to the top of Carrauntoohil 15 times in a row, which he described as “a different type of challenge”.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner about how he prepared for the challenge, Cooney said: “I am in the process of trying to complete every mountain in Ireland. There are 532, and I am currently on 363, so I spend a lot of time in the mountains.
“This gives me plenty of time to get ready for bigger challenges. There was no real way of preparing myself mentally. Just on the day, I knew what I was getting myself in for, so I just made sure to keep my mind focused on one climb at a time, rather than thinking of how many times I had left to go.”
Cooney said that he had aimed to complete the challenge without any sleep, for personal reasons, and managed to keep going for about 36 hours with no sleep before taking a four-hour break to catch up on some rest.
“On the ninth climb at around 2am, the base camp we had set up, where all my supplies were kept, had been blown away and that forced me to come down from the mountain,” he said.
“I managed to get four hours of sleep then, which was a game-changer in terms of the rest of the challenge. I was absolutely blessed with the amount of support I had throughout the challenge. These people were the backbone of the challenge and also made sure I was 100% safe throughout the challenge.
“I am so happy to say it all went well, and the number of messages and people sharing the stories from the challenge is something I will always treasure.”
Speaking about his reason why, he said: “I have always had a massive love for dogs. The big passion came last year when I climbed all the mountains. While doing this, I dedicated each mountain to a different dog in a different dog rescue.
“I learned so much about how many dogs get abandoned on a daily basis and felt like I wanted to do more to help.
There are so many rescue shelters in Ireland, with so many dogs, all breeds and all ages.
“I am a firm believer in everyone having to find a purpose in life, and I feel like these dogs are my purpose, and what keeps me going, so in some sense, they have rescued me, too.”
Cooney recently founded Paws for a Purpose – a small community where people are invited to bring their dogs on walks and hikes.
He said some volunteers who work in dog rescues also get involved in the walks by bringing along some dogs looking for their forever home.
“The main plan behind all this is to bring people and dogs together to help find new homes for rescue dogs. So far, we have had five Paws for A Purpose walks. Combined with the three challenges I have completed, I have raised just short of €34,000 in just over two years,” Cooney said.
A total of €19,500 was raised through the ‘Everest for Second Chances’ challenge alone, an amount that Cooney said is something he “could never have imagined”.
“I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who has donated, with over 700 people who donated, combined with people I know and people I don’t know, together we have raised over €19,500,” he said.
“This is something I could never have imagined happening. As I always mentioned when doing these challenges, one of the hardest parts is to raise awareness and money.
“Words can’t describe what it meant to me to have the physical support throughout the challenge. Knowing there was always someone waiting for me at the end of each climb was a huge help mentally.
“Everyone was so kind, supportive, and just brought a different type of energy to the challenge. I would like to say a massive thank you to the lovely family who run the Carrauntoohil Coffee Hut; they treated me like I was their own. This is something I will never forget.”
Cooney said his main goal now is to continue to raise funds and awareness for rescue dogs and to focus on building the community around Paws for A Purpose.
As for his next big challenge, Cooney said there are a few ideas already coming to mind, but that he will wait for the right time and for his mind and body to be in the right place to be able to complete them.
Those who wish to donate to Cooney’s fundraiser for rescue dogs can visit the dedicated GoFundMe page.