Irish company Iconic Camino, which offers retreats at some of Ireland’s most breath-taking locations, has found a special way to give back to the incredible healthcare workers who have been the true heroes of the COVID19 pandemic.  The brainchild of former Galway hurler Alan Kerins, the company is offering nominated frontline healthcare workers a free luxury weekend retreat.

Appropriately named the ‘Heroes Retreat,’ Iconic Camino has teamed up with Notre Dame Global Centre at Kylemore in Galway, to offer the free three-day retreat as a way of giving back and saying thank you to Ireland’s healthcare workers.

Nestled in idyllic surroundings, the Notre Dame Global Centre offers the perfect opportunity for those brave individuals who worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic and risked their lives daily, to rest, relax and recover.

During the getaway, healthcare workers will have the chance to indulge themselves in nourishing food, gentle hikes, and breath-taking scenery. Mindfulness, peace and tranquilly will never be far away on this exquisite retreat.

The public are being invited to nominate a healthcare worker they know for a place on a ‘Heroes’ Retreat’ on dates between now and the end of 2021. The Retreat is also the perfect opportunity for businesses to show their appreciation for our health care workers by donating to the programme. Kirby Group Engineering is the first to sign up for the scheme and has donated €50,000 to cover the cost of two weekends for the Heroes.

Iconic Camino is run by Alan Kerins, a former elite multi-code athlete, humanitarian, social entrepreneur, and philanthropist who has helped raise millions of euro for many vital and life-saving projects worldwide.

Speaking about the Retreat, Alan said: ‘For some time now, I have been trying to work out a way to reward the incredible effort of our doctors, our nurses, care home and ambulance staff who all stepped forward as the rest of the world stepped back. They’re the true heroes of this pandemic.’

Marie Lyons, a Mayo-based nurse who was on the frontline during the worst phases of the pandemic last year and joined Alan for the launch, said:

‘The pandemic experience has taken a hefty toll on healthcare workers, and it’s hard for us to take stock of what we’ve been through. Heroes’ Retreat is such a great chance for them to get away, catch their breath and take time to themselves.’

Mark Flanagan, Managing Director at Kirby said: ‘We are immensely proud to support the Heroes Retreat initiative for frontline health workers. We would encourage others to get involved with this wonderful way of giving something back by investing in our healthcare workers to say thank you for being there for us.’

Successful applicants will be chosen by random selection from nominations received online here. For the purposes of the competition, Frontline Healthcare Worker is defined as anyone working in direct patient care in the health service during 2020 and 2021.

Proof of employment may be required as part of the validation process, and a complete list of terms and conditions is available here.