The Arctic 'gets under your skin'

A Cork children’s entertainer, currently recovering from a recent hip replacement, is gearing up to return to the Arctic for the 26th time while raising money for an eyesight-saving charity.

Anthony Galvin is raising vital funds for Sightsavers, an international charity working to prevent avoidable blindness.

To help raise awareness around his campaign and to aid his recovery, the 58 year old magician has been dressing as an elf and pulling a heavy tyre around Cork city over the last week or so.

Having recently had a few issues with his Achilles tendon, Mr Galvin said that, ironically, asking people for funding is his Achilles heel, while enduring the harsh and frigid conditions of the Arctic suits him down to the ground.

“Asking people for donations will be tougher than the actual trek,” he laughed.

“I think the isolation helps me and the lack of isolation would be my Achilles heel!

“The fundraising part is definitely the most difficult,” added Mr Galvin.

His obsession with the Arctic began decades ago and he said that once he visited the unforgiving landscape, it immediately made a huge impact on him.

“It gets under your skin,” he said.

“One thing is that it's incredibly beautiful; you've got the snow, you've got the rolling hills, you've got the frozen lakes.

“I find that people who go to the Arctic either hate the place or love it so much, they keep coming back,” Mr Galvin told the Cork Independent recently.

“The light is extraordinary. At certain times of the day, you get what they call the ‘pink moment’ or the ‘blue moment’, where the sky is cloudy and the sun is just above or below the horizon and you have the beautiful dawn colours, but it gets reflected by the snow, so you’re in a globe of pink or a globe of blue,” added Mr Galvin.

Asked how his body is feeling ahead of January’s trek into the Arctic, Mr Galvin said he’s “absolutely raring to get back” and is feeling great overall.

“I’m of an age where my kids are old enough now that if anything was to happen to me, in emotional terms it matters, in practical terms it doesn’t,” he shared.

He also wanted to point out that he is covering the cost of the trip himself, which he describes as a “holiday”, so that anyone donating can be reassured that their money will be going to Sightsavers.