Route 66 - Meet Mike Naughton
For Mike Naughton, motorcycles and charity work have become closely intertwined. What began with local fundraising efforts and long distance biking challenges has since grown into involvement with Children’s Health Foundation’s Route 66 fundraiser, a journey that sees participants travel across the United States by motorcycle while raising funds for sick children and their families. Running since 2002, the total trip takes 14 days as participants travel through nine states.
Originally from Ballyforan in south Roscommon, Mike works as a software engineer with Cisco Galway, where colleagues have played a significant role in supporting his fundraising efforts.
Although he only signed up for Route 66 in late 2023 ahead of the 2024 event, charity fundraising had already become part of his life through both family experience and the motorcycle community around him.
“When I started my job, I noticed there was an awful lot of charity stuff going on,” he says. “There was volunteering, matched funding, Charity of the Quarter, all that kind of thing. I don’t know if it was inspiration from seeing my mother years ago selling raffle tickets for Children’s Health Foundation in particular, but I decided to fundraise for the Foundation.”
Before becoming involved with Children’s Health Foundation, Mike had already begun fundraising for Headway and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland following a serious brain injury sustained by his sister Helena in 2014.
“Headway and Acquired Brain Injury Ireland helped her out when she was getting through things,” he says.
His eldest sister Amanda had also been diagnosed with leukaemia when she was younger, an experience which left a lasting impression on him and his family.
“I was always very grateful for charities and all the support they had because both of them survived these ailments,” he says. “I just wanted to make a difference when I actually could, once I came out of college and knew I could afford to do these things.”
That eventually led him towards the motorcycle fundraising community in Galway, including Tribes MCC, a club heavily involved in charity fundraising events and organised rides.
“They’re just lovely guys,” Mike says. “All they’re really interested in is organising spins for charities and that kind of crack.”
Alongside local fundraising, Mike has also taken on endurance biking challenges including the Long Day Down, a route stretching from Malin Head to Mizen Head completed in a single day.
“You leave at four o’clock in the morning at sunrise in Malin and you get to Mizen that night,” he says. “You’re looking at seventeen or eighteen hours on the saddle of a bike. It’s torture at the same time, but it gets donations.”
For Mike, however, Route 66 brought a completely different scale of experience.
“Last year we were in 44 degrees Celsius for three days straight,” he recalls. “If you opened your visor, it was like a microwave. The heat was actually better inside the helmet if you left the visor down.”
Participants travel in full protective gear and spend long days on the road, but Mike says the sense of camaraderie quickly becomes one of the defining parts of the trip.
“You end up making friends forever on the plane ride over,” he says. “A lot of the people you meet on the tour are salt of the earth for the reasons they themselves want to raise money for this charity.”
He remembers arriving into Chicago after a long journey from Ireland before immediately heading to collect the motorcycles for the trip.
“You don’t even really get a chance to look inside your bag before you’re off again,” he says.
This year’s Route 66 challenge will also be different for another reason, as Mike’s girlfriend will join him on the trip.
“There’s an awful lot of practise involved,” he says. “It’s so much harder with a pillion passenger. Slow speed manoeuvres are different and you need to think about braking and corners a bit more. But she’s taken it very seriously. She’s been amazing.”
Back in Galway, Mike’s fundraising efforts have continued to grow. Earlier this year he organised a local motorcycle run connected to another endurance challenge, the Irish Photo Rally, alongside a fundraising music night featuring local bands.
“We raised just over €2,500 across those few days,” he says.
Support from colleagues at Cisco Galway has also been central to the fundraising campaign. Through bake sales, workplace events and donations made through the company’s Benevity platform, staff have raised more than €16,500 internally, with Cisco matching employee donations.
“We do lunch and learns where we talk about the charity and where the fundraising goes,” Mike explains. “Children’s Health Foundation was also nominated as Charity of the Quarter here in Galway.”
Altogether, Mike has now raised more than €19,500 ahead of this year’s challenge.
For all the miles, heat and physical exhaustion involved in Route 66, he says what stays with him most afterwards are the people.
“You’re nearly depressed when it’s over,” he says. “Not because of the spin ending, but because of the people you meet. The craic you have is unreal.”
And despite the scale of the challenge itself, Mike believes the fundraising matters far more than the journey.
“It’s not just sponsoring me,” he says. “You’re actually making a difference to a charity here.”
Donate now to support sick children in Children's Health Ireland (CHI) hospitals and urgent care centres
Short Story
test short description
Make a Donation
Short Story
test short description
Make a Donation