Day in the life
I get up at 7.30am but I am definitely a night owl rather than an early bird. After some controlled chaos, I get our two boys, Colin, 7, and Eoghan, 9, off to school and get on the road to work. By 9am I’m at my desk at the fundraising office of Breakthrough Cancer Research on College Road, Cork. It’s a national organisation [part of Cork Cancer Research Centre] dedicated to raising funds for research into the development of new treatments for cancers that do not currently respond to conventional therapies and or which currently have poor survival rates. Our research scientists’ work has been acclaimed internationally and I’m part of a team of three who are responsible for raising funds to improve existing therapies and develop new, effective treatments for cancer. The office is particularly busy at present, with enquiries from all over Ireland, so I have to prioritise every day to keep a certain degree of order in my work. Once I know how we are progressing, I will spend my morning reviewing what fundraising and awareness events we have planned in the short and long term. This involves everything from checking how many people have signed up to take part, to the logistics and marketing of the events and how we might engage with as many people as possible.
