Oasis Travel staff complete gruelling challenges to raise £23k for charity

Oasis Travel staff have completed gruelling fundraising challenges to collect more than £23,000 for important causes close to the company and mark its 40th anniversary.

Scott McCabe, son of Northern Ireland travel agency founder Sandra Corkin, has run the Mont Blanc Marathon while 15 staff have taken the cycling challenge Pedal The Periphery 2024.

McCabe, project manager at the agency, has raised more than £10,000 for cancer charity Marie Curie to honour the legacy of Oasis Travel co-founder Leslie Corkin, his grandfather, who died of lung cancer in 1989, and mark the agency’s 40th year in business.

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Corkin said: “Scott wanted to do this because my dad set me up in business 40 years ago and he died five years later in the Marie Curie centre. It was his financial backing that started the business but he never got to see what became of the agency.”

McCabe, who took part in the marathon at the end of June, said he wanted to show his gratitude to the Marie Curie workers who cared for his grandfather in his final days at the Belfast hospice as well as honour his grandfather’s memory.

In the second challenge, Oasis Travel staff, including Corkin, formed a team in a cycling challenge last month around Northern Ireland raising £13,500 in aid of Nipanc (Northern Ireland Pancreatic Cancer). Nipanc aims to raise awareness of the symptoms of this “silent killer” and funds for cancer research.

Ten members of the Oasis Travel family have lost loved ones to pancreatic cancer, including Corkin’s brother Gary, former financial director of the agency, who died in 2020.

Corkin said: “As a team we had to cycle the periphery of Northern Ireland – 480 miles in 48 hours. It was a real challenge, but we took turns.

“We had a tracker we passed on to the next person and we had support vehicles with us and did it in 20 to 50 mile sections.

“We started on Friday afternoon and finished on Sunday morning. It was real team work: the best team building exercise we’ve ever done and the best weekend of fun and laughter!”