A prison inmate who was granted temporary release to run a double marathon has so far raised €30,000 for charity.
Organisers said yesterday that money was still flooding in following Pat Scanlan's 52-mile run from Ballybunion to Limerick, and they expressed confidence that they could top the €100,000 mark.
"We distributed around 5,000 sponsorship cards ahead of Pat's run, and so far just 150 have come back totalling €30,000.
"God only knows what the final figure will be if we get all the cards back," said Scanlan's counsellor John Flynn.
The convicted drug dealer, who is serving a seven-year sentence, was granted a 48-hour temporary release from the training unit in Mountjoy on December 19th to complete the double marathon.
His efforts caught the attentions of Lord Jeffrey Archer, who has served time for perjury, and the disgraced peer made a personal donation of €1,500 to the charity fundraiser.
Scanlan, who hails from Loughill, Co Limerick, lost his restaurant business through addiction to drugs and gambling, and got involved in a major drugs run which led to his arrest and imprisonment.
Earlier this week Scanlan received an offer from the Forest Addiction Clinic in Co Wicklow to participate in a three-week treatment programme ahead of his release in March.
"Pat now has a great opportunity to get any residual compulsions out of his system ahead of his release to help ease his transition back into society. He's also very grateful to the Minister for Justice for giving him the opportunity to complete his charity fundraiser," said Mr Flynn.
It's expected that Scanlan will hand over all the money raised to the four charities at the training unit in Mountjoy shortly before his release in March.
The charities which will benefit from his double-marathon fundraiser are the Chernobyl Children's Project, the Romanian Challenge Appeal, Calcutta Calling and St Joseph and The Helpers Charity.
Donations can still be made to "Pat's Gift" at Bank of Ireland account no: 15305675, sort code 90-06-23.