Cause Celebs: Celebrating Celebrity-Philanthropists – Dive into a world where Hollywood’s biggest names transcend the silver screen to make a tangible impact. From Lady Gaga to Miley Cyrus, these A-listers leverage their star power for good, championing causes close to their hearts.
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Since his rise to fame in the early 2000s, Colin Farrell has been a lot of things: a movie star, a notorious hellraiser, an award-winning actor, and a man who’s dealt with – and triumphed over – booze and drugs.
Turns out he’s also a hell of a nice guy whose heart is in the right place.
Take the Irish Life Dublin Marathon, which was held on October 27th. Farrell ran a fine race but did something even more important: he assisted his friend Emma Fogarty by pushing her wheelchair for the final – what can be brutal – 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) of the race.
Fogarty has epidermolysis bullosa (EB). This rare genetic disorder, as described by the Guardian (UK), causes “very fragile and blistering skin.” At 40 Fogarty is the oldest Irish survivor of this exceptionally painful disorder. She and Farrell raised €785,000 Euro ($850,00 US dollars) for Debra Ireland charity, which funds research into the skin condition.
Farrell has nothing but praise for Fogarty’s bravery and endurance. Irish Central quotes him as saying of Fogarty: “She is what courage is all about.”
The 48-year-old actor knows a thing or two about fundraising for charity. He’s launched the Colin Farrell Foundation to assist children with special needs and their families. His decision to create the foundation stems from direct experience; at the age of two, Farrell’s elder son James was diagnosed with Angelman Syndrome, a neurogenic disorder that severely circumscribes the ability to speak and walk and affects intellectual development. His son’s diagnosis served as Farrell’s wake-up call, leading him to ditch his addictions so he could be there for James – and, through his foundation, for others, as well.
