A south Armagh woman whose business was gutted in a blaze earlier this year has put the terrible experience firmly behind her – and is now planning a ‘symbolic’ fire walk fundraiser for orphans with special needs.
Moira Fegan ran New Beginnings Reflexology from portable premises to the rear of her home in Silverbridge.
In April, she was devastated after the business, which she had established and built up over the course of a decade, was destroyed, after LED lights led to a Christmas decoration smouldering and catching on fire.
Describing what had happened as a “massive blow”, she could have been forgiven for throwing in the proverbial towel.
But instead Moira decided not only work towards reopening, but to expand on operations too, leading to the creation and launch of her own Erìu Wellness Centre.
She did so after support and guidance from the Armagh-based life coach, mentor and inspirational speaker Stevey J.
Moira told Armagh I : “I’d been attending Stevey for about three years and I kind of had the mindset that I wanted to give up, but he was in my head, from doing different retreats and stuff with him.
“When the fire happened, it was like, do I give up or do I go big and go for everything that had been manifesting over the years? I had been working towards getting my yoga teaching and hiring out spaces to run different events and stuff. So what I’ve done is I have built up my reflexology again, but I’ve also expanded and I’ve opened up a wellness centre where I do yoga, Pilates classes, fire circles, retreats, and a place to bring the community together.”
Now Moira has decided to keep with the theme of fire and organise a charity fire walk at her premises, at Tullydonnell, Silverbridge.
She is hoping that 40 brave souls will sign up and come along next Thursday night, October 29, to take part, with the fire walk due to get underway at 7.30pm.
Extensive damage was caused to Moira’s business in April.
It is a symbolic undertaking given what Moira has herself experienced during the course of these past number of months.
“Fire is very cleansing,” she explained. “Fire is like renewal, and it’s the energy of the fire that will bring that closure to this and bring a fresh kind of renewal.
“Walking through these hot coals and facing the fear of walking through the hot coals, to change our complete state of mind, is like walking into a brand new beginning.
“I’m hoping that lots of people that are taking part will be able to put things in their own past behind them and be able to walk into the future with a new sense of clarity to a different state of mind.”
The money raised will go to support charitable efforts within special needs orphanages in war-torn countries, something which Stevey J, through the ‘International Orphanage Development Program’ charity, has been involved with over the past 10 years.
“He used to go out to Belarus, but because of the war that’s been stopped,” explained Moira. “The past two years he’s gone to Ukraine and this year we’re planning on going to Ukraine again. It’s to special needs orphanages, to give them Christmas presents and to help them with essential needs.
“In one orphanage, there was one wee fella who had no hands. He asked for a radio for Christmas and what he did was he wrote down the news with his toes and passed around the news to everybody every day. So when the boys went back and they saw what was happening, they put plugs and radios into every single room in the orphanage.
“It’s making life-changing changes there. They’ve been doing it for years. We’re hoping to raise £8,000 to help go towards it in this event.
“They’ll be doing other charity events as well, but this is like a starter for it, and all the money is going directly to the orphanages and the children. None of it’s going on flights or anything else, as we’re all covering that ourselves.”
The intention is to travel over between Christmas and the New Year and deliver the benefits of this latest fundraising drive.
If the goal of 40 people signing up for the fire walk – and each raising a minimum of £200 – is met, it should help Moira hit her funding target.
“I have about 30 people signed up so far, so I’m looking a few more,” she added. “I have an eventbrite link where they can sign up and register, and then I have a GoFundMe page where they can share that they’re doing it and hopefully get sponsorship.”
The GoFundMe link is available here.
