A top athlete who has won silver for Ireland in a gruelling world championship event in Italy is leading an 80-strong group of cyclists on a 4,300km North American run to raise funds for a cancer charity.

Triathlon athlete Keira- Eva Mooney, a Dublin-based solicitor from Ballymore Eustace, Co Kildare this week took the silver medal in the Duathlon World Championships in Rimini, Italy. In a fortnight she will lead the Nova Scotia to Heuston, Texas cycle event to raise funds for the Tony Griffin Foundation, a cancer charity fund set up by her boy­friend Tony Griffin, the Co Clare All Star hurler whose father died of cancer. Griffin was a sports science degree student in Nova Scotia.

Mooney won her silver medal competing in the triathlon event against top athletes from 40 countries and scored a personal best by finishing in a time of two hours 23 seconds. She opened with a fast 10km run before the 40km bike course and won silver after a desperate final 5km sprint run.