Scholarship and charity swim for Laois medical student

A Laois medical student and four classmates have raised almost €4000 for Domestic Abuse Support, by doing Freezebury for the month of February.

Christopher Carew, 22, from Portlaoise is studying Medicine in University College Dublin.

The chilly challenge involved swimming in the Dublin sea every day in the month of February, building from one minute on February 1st to 28 minutes on February 28th.

Portlaoise volunteers sought for vital Daffodil Day for cancer

It was all to aid Aoibhneas Domestic Abuse Support and with his friends Conor Gleeson, Jack Quinlan, Emmett Browne and Padraic Cagney, Chris has so far reached €3,905. 

Experienced competitive swimmer Christopher told the Leinster Express how it went.

"At the start it was mentally tough to bring ourselves to get into the water in the cold weather, as the swims started getting longer it physically got a lot more difficult, the five of us really needed to dig deep and support each other to get through the 20+ minute long swims. 

"It genuinely felt like my mind and body were starting to shut down with the cold after some of the swims," he said.

"Aoibhneas is a charity that does a lot of great work with women and children who’ve been the victims of domestic abuse, and as a reasonably small charity they don’t get a huge amount of recognition or exposure. I noticed this during the month as a lot of people we spoke to hadn’t heard of the charity. 

"Through the media we were aware that there was a 43% increase in reports of domestic violence during the pandemic. We had also raised money for them late last year as part of UCD Med Week.

"A massive thanks to everyone who donated, we were blown away by the response and have raised much more than we’d initially hoped. And donations are still open and appreciated," Christopher added. 

See the link below story.

Meanwhile the high achieving Laois student has also received a prestigious university award for academic excellence.

Christopher was presented with his award by UCD President Andrew Deeks, at O’Reilly hall this March.

Pictured below with parents Tim and Martina. 

The University Scholarship Award was for the highest GPA attained in Stage 3 Medicine. Benefits include bursary, recognition certificate and achievement recorded on academic transcript.

Presenting the award, in his last official role at the University, Professor Deeks said “As winners you are the standard bearers of excellence, the highflyers of our student community. You have distinguished yourselves by your performance and outstanding achievements.”

Laois GAA players sworn in as Gardaí

A past pupil of Mountrath Community School, Chris is a previous recipient of this award as well as the Catholic University Award Medal and the Molloy Chemistry Medal. He is already an Adastra scholar at the university.

Earlier this year he was selected to represent UCD at the prestigious Dr HH Stewart Medical Awards in three categories- Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry.

Christopher is also a competitive swimmer and swims for UCD.

Donate to Freezebury here.