Community worker to undertake Camino for SOSAD

A community worker embarking on the most gruelling route of the Camino in Spain is raising funds to support the vital work of local mental health charity SOSAD.

Daniel Downey is set to pull on his boots and backpack and trek the Camino De La Plata from Seville in southern Spain north to Caceres, a distance of 301 kilometres. The De La Plata is renowned as the hardest Camino for its long, isolated stretches across deserted terrain.

This is the fourth time that Daniel has embarked on a personal challenge - which he pays for - and doubles it up as a fundraiser for a mental health charity. Each year he targets €1,000, and as today is World Suicide Prevention Day he hopes to boost the SOSAD coffers.

A suicide survivor, Daniel has huge admiration for work SOSAD does and he's confident any donations will have a tangible impact for service users.

"Five Euro funds one phone call on their helpline, €15 is a crisis intervention with a support worker, €25 funds a professional counselling session in one of the centres and €150 covers the cost of six weeks of professional counselling for a service user."

This is the fourth such charity hike, having previously visited Greenland, Svalbard and North Spain. However, Daniel has noticed that this year the donations have been slower to come in. The least raised previously was in 2019 when he raised €1,276, and in 2023 he secured the most at €1,578. Each of his trips have been similar expeditions, at the same time of the year, and for a mental health charity. Compared to 2018 when he did his first trip, advances in online fundraising sites mean it's much more convenient to donate.

"Each year I've done this you max out your €1,000 at this stage and we are at €765," he tells the Celt.

"I wonder if it is a reflection of the wider difficulties charities might be having to fundraise. Irish people have always been really generous digging deep for causes at home and abroad. But it's harder to dig deep if there's less in the pockets for the essentials."

He further contends that mental health organisations should have sufficient and dependable funding from government to provide their essential services and not be so dependent on fundraising.

"In this day and age, I'm just shocked that we have made such progress economically - we've made such progress in business and employment and technology and yet we don't seem to have made massive service improvement for mental health."

You can support Daniel's challenge and donate to SOSAD by clicking here.