“I climbed Ireland’s highest mountain…after my quadruple bypass.”

Summer is often a time for people to get out more and get active. But for one man in Cork, it was a time to step up to the challenge of Ireland’s biggest mountain, Carrauntoohil. A great achievement by any standards but what makes this story special is that Sean reached the summit of our highest peak 15 months after undergoing a quadruple bypass on his heart. This is his story…

From Carhue South in Bandon County Cork, heart surgery couldn’t have been further from Sean’s mind in March 2009. At 62 years old, Sean felt fit and healthy and overall he was in good spirits. But when Sean started to have some trouble sleeping, his wife Mary became concerned and urged Sean to go to the doctor.

Sean said: “I felt fine even though I did have a bit of shortness of breath at times. But I didn’t think it was anything to worry about. My wife Mary told me to go to the doctor so I did and he sent me for an ECG. That’s when I really got a shock and realised there was something wrong with me. Next thing I knew the doctor told me to stay in hospital and within a week I had a quadruple by-pass.”

Most evenings Sean used to do some moderate walking as he was about a stone overweight around the time he had to undergo a quadruple by-pass. A week after the operation, Sean was keen to get in shape and he started walking up to 7km or 8km every evening to help in his recovery. Sean was advised by his GP to start getting active regularly and the doctor suggested it might be a good idea to set himself a challenge. It wasn’t long before an idea formed and so with 10 members of his extended family – Sean set out to climb Carrauntouhill (3,406ft) on Tuesday 15th June, 2010.

Overall Sean found the climb very challenging and had to stop a number of times along the way. The climb took around 8 hours to complete. They started at 10.30am and finished around 6pm that Tuesday evening. Sean’s family stopped some 40 feet away from the top of Carrauntouhill to allow Sean the privilege of reaching the top first and on his own. He said: “Standing on top of the mountain was extremely emotional. The scenery was amazing and I couldn’t believe I’d actually done it! It was a great moment and one I will always remember. I didn’t even think about how I was going to get back down the mountain!”

To make the event even more special, Sean rallied his family and asked each member to raise €100 – which made an incredible donation of €1,200 to the Irish Heart Foundation from Sean and his family.

And now it seems that Sean is bitten by the mountain-climbing bug because The Meehans plan to do another climb next year (2011) and they are setting their sights on Brandon Mountain in Kerry (3,127ft). Once again they plan to raise vital money for the Irish Heart Foundation.