MARIE MEETSThis week I caught up with Max Coyne, a 15 year old Transition Year student at St Brendan’s College Killarney who recently completed a full marathon of 26.2 miles wearing a 10kg Tactical Vest to raise funds to the tune of €750 for Nathan's Walk, Darkness into Light, which he was so disappointed to have missed out on in May due to other commitments.

Max, a member of Muckross Rowing club, integrated the distance into his training runs, over a 6 day period, running an average of 4.5 miles each day in addition to his normal water and gym sessions. Max walks the Darkness into Light each year in remembrance of Nathan O’Carroll.“This year, I wanted to do something that would draw attention to the struggles some of our family and friends carry through each day, but that are not visible to the rest of society,” Max said.“Running with an extra 10kg on my body really gave me a sense of how a person could feel the weight of their thoughts or their troubles, and how that could get the better of you."“Lots of times I think people are afraid to say they are suffering, and sometimes I think that trying to explain to your friends how you feel can be as hard as actually living with the burden of mental health challenges."That’s why it seemed to be a good idea to try to represent anxiety which is invisible, with a real weight like the 10kg vest. It is something that others can see and identify as a big thing you are carrying, and that they might be able to help with, by offering to share your load, and carry some of your burden."When my friends saw me doing the runs, a couple of them joined me for some of my runs, some put on a vest too and ran with me, and some of my friends felt they couldn’t run with the extra weight, but they ran beside me to keep me company and that felt just as good.”“As well as highlighting a really good cause, it was brilliant to be able to raise €750 to give to Pieta House and that shows how much people really do care about helping others struggling with mental health issues.” I was inspired by Brian Foley of Activate gym who completed the 'Marathon des Sables' for Pieta House this year, and who loaned me the Tactical Vest for the week of training."