Running in memory of Adele

Maitiú Monaghan

Last Sunday's Irish Life Dublin Marathon was about a lot more than a fast time and a medal for Shane O'Neill.

Originally from Kerry, the Dr. Croke's clubman met his fiancé Adele while both were working in Dublin a number of years ago. Eventually the pair moved to Cavan.

In April 2025, his fiancée Adele was diagnosed with breast cancer. With the support of friends and family, throughout her journey, the Monaghan woman remained high spirited.

Running had always been past time for Adele, so in December of last year she booked her place in the marathon, with the intention of running it to raise funds and awareness for the National Breast Cancer Research Institute. After a year long battle, Adele passed in May of this year. In her memory, Adele's sister, Corina McKenna decided to run the marathon, using Adele's number and to raise funds for the same cause.

For a number of months throughout the summer, she and Shane ran together, which the Kerry man told the Celt was "a massive help".

As time passed, more and more of Adele's friends and family began to run in her memory. In total, nine people ran the marathon to celebrate Adele's life and to "create a future where fewer families have to experience heartbreak".

A social media page, @milesforadele, was set up to help the group raise awareness about the cause they were running for.

On that page, each of the runners outlined their reason for running last weekend. Cabrina, Adele's sister explained that "running has become (her) way of processing grief, finding purpose, and remembering Adele with every mile".

Adele's brothers, Matthew (who plays football with Killygarry) and Daryl, also ran. They said they had "never ran much further than the length of a football pitch" but are "proud to be running as a family to honour our beautiful sister and continue her legacy".

Also running were Shane's friends, Mike, David, and PJ, as well as Adele's friends Audrey and Aoife.

The @milesforadele fundraiser has raised over €50,000 for the National Breast Cancer Research Institute.

Currently, one in seven Irish women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and there are 3,507 cases diagnosed annually which is set to continue to increase.