Former Ireland and Leinster rugby prop Mike Ross will be among 18 people to face a survival challenge deep inside the Arctic Circle to help raise funds for charity.
On their six-day trek from March 4-10, Ross and his comrades will learn the skills needed to survive in the wilderness in chilling temperatures of -27C.
Their initial accommodation will be a woodcutters’ lodge with no electricity or running water.
There, they will learn the skills necessary to survive in one of the world’s harshest environments, lighting fires using lichen, pickaxing through ice for drinking water and cooking local food on camp fires.
After two days’ training, they head off on a two-day trek into Finland’s Yllas national park, where they will camp outdoors overnight.
Ross, 42, who retired at the end of 2017 after a 12-year professional career, admitted that he struggled with fitness during lockdown but is training again.
“I’ve done some hill walking and I go for nightly walks as well as doing Brazilian Jujitsu,” he said.
“It’s just about preparing to get active again and getting ready for the challenge. It’s going to be a slog.
“But once you mentally prepare for it, that’s the main thing.
“While our trek will be pretty formidable, it is nothing like the survival challenge that living every day with epidermolysis bullosa (EB) entails.”
Three hundred people in Ireland live with hugely distressing EB, which causes the skin, both inside and out, to blister and wound at the slightest touch – and ‘Butterfly Skin’ Debra Ireland is dedicated to supporting those living with the condition.
There is no known cure for the genetic condition and the only treatment is constant, painful bandaging of the skin.
Money raised from the challenge will be used to continue increasing the quality of care Debra Ireland provides as well as fund critical medical research that can make treatments available.
“I was well aware of Debra Ireland from my rugby days, because Leinster supported the charity and Johnny Sexton was, and still is, quite heavily involved with them,” Mike said.
He added that when the charity’s board member, Bobby Healy, approached him in June 2020 about doing the challenge, it was the middle of lockdown and he jumped at the opportunity.
“When Bobby asked me I probably would have gone on an adventure to the Sahara,” he added.
“I had never been to the Arctic so it suddenly seemed like a good opportunity to go there and raise much needed funds for a great charity at same time.”
Leading the 2022 expedition is internationally qualified, veteran outdoors man Ronan Mullen of Adventure.ie.
As well as providing day to day support both in the home and remotely for EB patients, the charity also funds research programmes to find better treatments and possible cures for EB.
Each participant in the Arctic Challenge, which is sold out, will have a minimum 5,500 euro fundraising target, 3,500 euro of which will go to Debra Ireland to maintain the charity’s vital services.
To support Ross’s fundraising, visit his page here.
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