Mark Farren's passing is still difficult to come to terms with and will be for quite some time. For League of Ireland fans, his battle with cancer really brought the League together last year when it became clear just how serious things had become. The Mark Farren fund was set up and everything that could be done was done to ensure that the Derry City legend was able to travel to Mexico to get undergo every treatment option available.
Tragically Farren passed away last week at just 33 and the response from fans throughout the country since then has been a testament to a great footballer and an ever better man. Speaking on the Sean O'Rourke show on RTÉ today, Farren's brother in law, Sean Holmes, was speaking about the man who managed to become Derry's all-time leading scoring despite battling with his illness since 2008.
According to Holmes, it was four or five months after he returned from Mexico that it became clear that all the treatment options that were open had been unable to halt the illness. His brain tumour had progressed to Grade 4 and at that point it became clear that things were 'going to get real difficult'.
However, as an example of the kind of spirit that Farren possessed through to the end, Holmes explained to O'Rourke that, no matter how he was feeling, the Derry legend was incredibly determined to ensure that he was able to see Ireland defeat Bosnia in the Euro 2016 play-off back in November.
He was determined to go to that. He mentioned to Terri (his wife) he was determined to see that so we got together and we got him to the Bosnia game. But that week we saw a real deterioration, a backwards step.
But up he went, determined to go to the game and he enjoyed it.
It's a small example of Farren's strength of character of course but it's one that can only add to the good feeling that football fans across the country feel for the Donegal man. And we can only hope that the incredible amount of well wishes that have been forthcoming from fans across the country can be of some comfort to Terri and the rest of Mark's family at this time.
