County Kildare Chamber hosted a Health and Wellbeing conference in The Clanard Court Hotel in Athy on Friday morning with a key note address from Sir Ranulph Fiennes, the world’s most famous living explorer. 526 delegates attended the event which the Chamber hosted in association with LEO Kildare.
The adventurer recalled attempting to climb onto the roof of the Dail during a family visit to Dublin as a teenager. “I was detained by a garda and kept overnight – wasn’t the first time I was arrested for climbing up drainpipes. I think they thought I was trying to take the copper or lead from the roof “. He recalled the incident during his key note address to a mixture of business attendees and locals who were enthralled throughout his 60 minute talk.
Dr Eddie Murphy of Operation Transformation fame also spoke at the conference which Allan Shine, CEO of County Kildare Chamber said “ This conference is one of the largest Health and Wellbeing gatherings of the year so far in Ireland. We were delighted with the numbers attending and working closely with our partners LEO Kildare we are able to put on events such as this with relative ease.
Of particular interest to Sir Ranulph Fiennes was the visit straight after the event to Athy Heritage Museum as he is in the midst of writing a book on Earnest Shackleton. Fiennes stated that “Shackleton was one of the world’s finest explorers and whilst there are more than 60 books written on Shackleton I believe that my own experiences of extremes gives me a unique perspective on the adventurer from Kilkea.
Allan Shine concluded by saying, “Health and Wellbeing is such an important topic currently, we believe that by hosting conferences such as this, we are able to hopefully inspire the people attending in some way in improving their own health and wellbeing”.
Peter Carey, CE Kildare County Council, Aine Mangan CEO Into Kildare, Fiona O’Loughlin TD, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Allan Shine CEO County Kildare Chamber,
Maureen Bergin President County Kildare Chamber, Martin Heydon TD and Peanut the Husky.