Next weekend, the leadership team of the Licensed Vintners Association (LVA) will be going over the edge, when they “Jump for James’s” and abseil down the nine storey extension of the Red Cow Hotel. LVA Chairman Ronan Lynch, Vice Chair Noel Anderson and CEO Donall O’Keeffe will all be participating in this special event on Sunday 2nd June, which has been set up to raise money to build a Brain Disease Resource & Research Centre in St. James’s Hospital.
This fundraiser is the initiative of Tom Moran and his family of the Red Cow Moran Hotel, who hope to raise a total of €200,000 for the centre and who are longstanding members of the LVA.
Three years ago Tom suffered a near fatal brain injury, sustaining a stroke which caused him to fall while on holiday in Spain. Tom underwent a craniotomy and spent six weeks in an induced coma in Spain, before being airlifted to St. James’s Hospital. The outlook was initially very bleak and Tom was not expected to survive. His family was told that if he did pull through there was every possibility he would be brain damaged, blind and paralysed, requiring life-long care.
However Tom has defied the odds making an incredible recovery. He will even be among the 200 people to participate in the abseil event this Sunday, marking the third anniversary of his injury.