Dave McGrath made stops along the way to raise money for cancer.
WESTBOROUGH, MA — Dave McGrath, 51, a Westborough man who beat brain cancer as a teenager, spent three weeks this summer walking through Ireland.
McGrath traveled from Shannon to Derry with a backpack and guitar on his back. It was a trek of more than 200 miles.
The Westborough native wasn’t just sightseeing. He raised money for cancer and reconnected with his Irish roots along the way.
Surprisingly, this wasn’t his first long-distance walk in the Emerald Isle. Two years ago, McGrath hiked from Dublin to Dingle, another 200-mile journey.
When McGrath was a freshman in high school at Saint John's High School in Shrewsbury, he was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. That marked the beginning of a road filled with doctors’ visits, medical tests and physical challenges.
But it wasn’t until years later that he began experiencing headaches and double vision. Doctors ultimately found a tumor pushing on his optic nerve. He was told he had to have surgery to remove it.
“When you have brain surgery, you sign your life away,” McGrath said. “So there I was, 18 years old, facing brain surgery.”
That’s when his former neighbor told him that many cancer survivors used a different tactic to beat the disease - visualization. He told McGrath that if you close your eyes, picture the chemotherapy traveling through your veins and attacking your tumor, you will survive.
So, McGrath did just that, and after six rounds of chemo, he beat cancer for the first and last time. He graduated from Saint John's in 1992.
“Going through that at a young age is easier physically, but the emotional part is harder,” he said. “Eventually, I realized how much it taught me about life and what in life is actually important.”
On July 1, McGrath started his over 200-mile journey in Shannon, a scenic town in Western Ireland known for its mighty River Shannon and the Cliffs of Moher.
He used Google Maps to map out three-to-five-hour walks each day. His first stop was a tiny village called Quin.
“They basically rolled out the red carpet for me,” he said. “They had the head of the town committee introduce me, and he gave me a pullover.” There, he raised money for the Irish Cancer Society.
After that, he made his way to Gort, where he was invited to visit the town's cancer center.
He traveled to other towns, like Tuam, where he hosted an event at the Mall Theater. There he performed songs, told jokes and shared stories to raise money for the town's cancer care center.
McGrath finally arrived in Derry on day 23. He is finishing up the trip by riding buses, trains and cars through the country.
“I had grown up thinking I was 75% Irish,” said McGrath. “Then I had my DNA tested, and it came up as 97%. That’s when I was like, I gotta get over there.”
He said he wanted to see as much of Ireland as he possibly could.
“I feel more at home in Ireland than the U.S., and that’s just how welcoming, friendly and open it is.”
If there’s one thing he has learned through all of his travels and discoveries, it's that the people he meets along the way are the most important.
“The only thing in life that matters is the people that you have in your life,” he said. “Everything else is kind of a distraction.”
McGrath said financial support from family, friends and followers helped make his journey possible. Plus, he is offering a free copy of his book to anyone who donates $20 or more.
You can donate through Venmo or PayPal, which can be found on his Instagram page.