Brave Anto completes 90-mile pilgrimage in wheelchair

July 21, 2017

Former Antrim footballer Anto Finnegan. INPHO

Former Antrim football captain Anto Finnegan has completed the famous Camino de Santiago, despite being terminally ill.

The 44-year-old father-of-the-two, who was diagnosed with a neurological condition in 2012, undertook the 90-mile pilgrimage in a specially-adapted wheelchair through rough terrain and up mountains to highlight MND (Motor Neurone Disease). His wife Alison and friends Cormac Carmichael and Brendan Elliot pushed and pulled his wheelchair from St Jean Pied de Port in France to Logrono in Spain.

"Living with MND on a daily basis is really challenging, not just for the person with the condition but for the people around you," he told the Irish News.

"We wanted something which mirrored the challenge of living with the condition. We didn't do sponsorship. We didn't raise money. We didn't want to, it was a personal thing for the four of us."

Anto, who captained Antrim to an All-Ireland SFC 'B' success in 1999, organised a game between Dublin and an All-Star Ulster selection at Kingspan Stadium - the home of Ulster Rugby - in November 2014 in aid of his deterMND Trust.


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