Daredevil Regina has undertaken all sorts of challenges to raise money for charity – the latest of which bagged her a fiance.
A woman who has raised around £125,000 for cancer charities after her dad lost his battle with the disease has revealed how her scariest fundraising challenge of firewalking ignited a whirlwind love.
And just five weeks after meeting her new man – all thanks to the hot coals – they got engaged.
Regina O’Reilly, 42, of Nottingham, had spent the past eight years taking on terrifying feats, including running a marathon at the North Pole, but with little free time left over, she had no luck finding a man.
The credit controller, who is now happily in love with Paul Merry, 53, admits she had lost her confidence when it came to dating – before firewalking changed her life.
She said: “I hadn’t had much luck with men, and being single for 12 years, you start to wonder, ‘Is there something wrong with me?’
“But with a firewalk, you are so euphoric and hyped up to do it, for a long while afterwards the feeling that you can literally do anything in the world stays with you – and I think I must have had a bit of that when I met Paul.”
Regina, who moved to England from Co. Monoghan, Ireland when she was 20, first took up firewalking – the ancient practice of walking over burning hot embers barefoot – as a new and adventurous way to attract donations, the majority of which she gives to Bowel Cancer UK.
She said: “If you are always raising money for charity, you need to keep finding new things that will keep people’s support for you up.
“I knew I had to set myself a really big challenge – something that really pushed me – and when I came across firewalking I thought, ‘This is perfect’.”
I came across firewalking and thought, ‘This is perfect’
Regina O’Reilly
Taking on her first walk across the flaming track in March 2016 – during which she raised £5,000 – Regina found that she enjoyed the bracing four-metre traipse so much that she continued doing it for fun, explaining that the experience gave her an “enormous confidence boost in her own abilities”.
But in October 2018, at her most recent firewalk, it was not only the cinders underfoot that were enflamed – but Regina’s heart too, after meeting Paul in the pub afterwards.
She recalled: “We chatted away all night.”
Just five weeks later, Paul, a carer for dementia patients, asked Regina if she would be his wife.
“It all happened very quickly – I mean, we haven’t even met each other’s families yet – but of course I said yes right away,” said Regina.
But even with a wedding planned for June 2019, her passion for fundraising has not abated, as Regina plans to do a half-marathon in Transylvania in May, with her former-soldier fiance joining her.
“We’re also doing a seven-day trek in the Pyrenees mountains, which run along the French and Spanish border,” she said. “It’s all for a good cause.”
Regina began fundraising for Bowel Cancer UK – a leading charity that raises money for research and support for sufferers – after her dad, Frank O’Reilly, died at the age of 62 from the disease in 2006.
Having never been involved before in charity work, Regina took up fundraising in earnest, explaining: “The loss of my dad jump-started me into doing something that would really help other people.”
The loss of my dad jump-started me into doing something that would really help other people.
Regina O’Reilly
She continued: “I had never even been on a run before I decided to start doing physical challenges for charity – but when I set myself a task I can be quite tenacious.”
With the bit between her teeth, Regina began a rigorous training regime and soon found herself running marathons around the world – in Chicago, Dublin and even at the North Pole, which she described as “amazing”.
But having raised around £125,000 – for Bowel Cancer UK as well as other charities – from 20 marathons, Regina wanted to set herself a new money-making endeavour.
She explained: “I love a good challenge and I just felt that I wanted to find something different and out of the ordinary.
“Then when I discovered firewalking it immediately seemed like the sort of thing that would be up my street – something that wasn’t just physically difficult, but mentally tough too.”
Arranging her first outing on the coals for March 2016 through specialist firewalking company A Secret Hero, Regina says she felt “sick to her stomach” as the big day loomed.
“You see what it is that you are about to put your bare flesh across and it is absolutely terrifying and you think there is no way that I can push myself to walk over what is essentially a furnace,” said Regina, who faced the challenge at a pub car park in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire.
“But it really is all in the mind and before you go across, Errol, who runs the firewalk, gives you a pep talk to psychologically prepare you for it – and by the end of it I’m pretty sure you could do anything.”
Surrounded by a crowd of 100 friends and supporters, Regina mounted the strip of smoking embers and slowly but surely made her way across to the other side.
She continued: “It was incredible. You obviously feel the warmth on your feet, but it’s a bit like a hot potato and if you just keep moving then your soles don’t get hot enough for you to burn.”
But it was the emotional uplift of having conquered her fears that enlivened her most and, looking to relive the “euphoric” tingle, Regina has firewalked twice more now since her first experience.
No matter how many others she undertakes, though, it will be the firewalk in October 2018 that will stick in her memory the most.
You feel the warmth, but it’s a bit like a hot potato and if you just keep moving then your soles don’t burn.
Regina O’Reilly
“I was starting to worry a bit that I might not ever meet anyone to spend my life with,” she said.
“Raising funds for charity is an amazing thing and I love doing it, but you do want to be able to share your life with someone too.
“So it seems fitting really that I met the love of my life through my passion for fundraising – even if the firewalking part was a little unexpected. And my dad would be really happy I’m happy with Paul.”