Michael O’Halloran’s Darkness into Light

The tenth Darkness into Light will be held on Saturday, 10 May, in memory of those who lost their lives to suicide. This walk is also to raise money for AFESOL – the mental health charity.

Michael O’Halloran is the Dubliner who has been behind the Costa del Sol walk. The Irish charity Pieta organizes walks all over the world. Michael O’Halloran became involved in Pieta charity after his son, who was a 36-years-old single father with a seven-year-old girl, committed suicide in 2010.

Michael: “I became involved with Pieta, and I did various things including a sponsored descent down a cliff. When I was in Spain in 2016, we formed a small group of 20 people. Pieta was contacted again and I asked if she could help us get 20 T shirts to do the same thing here in San Pedro. It was the very first Darkness into Light event in Spain. We were 540 just after COVID. It’s our tenth anniversary, and we continue to grow. “We contacted mental-health charities and asked them to commit to funding suicide prevention if we raised money for them.”

So far the group has raised over €100,000 for AFESOL, and Michael has branched the event out with walks in Benalmadena, La Cala de Mijas and Estepona; fashion shows; and a separate walk called Take Part Your Own Way this year with Christopher Grenfell hiking 8 times in one day to the top of Cruz de Juanar mountain in Marbella and cycling back down. In this event, he invites others to join him and hike with him.

Darkness Into Light begins at 6 am on Saturday May 10 from:

• Benalmadena – Plaza El Remo (La Carihuela – Torremolinos)
• Estepona – Chiringuito Blue Dolphin, Estepona
• La Cala de Mijas – Outside Biddy Mulligans, Boulevard de La Cala.

Tickets cost €24 from darknessintolight.ie.