Ita’s legacy for cancer patients opens
Two years ago the 39-year-old cancer sufferer vowed to open a residential centre to care for others with the disease and yesterday her family and friends gathered just outside Mullingar in Co Westmeath for its opening.
Sadly, Ita, a non-smoker, lost her brave battle against lung cancer last Sunday - only days before her dream, funded by family and friends, became a reality.
Just two years ago Ita told the centre’s two other founders, Frank Russell and Karen Daly, who also have cancer, that she wanted to help sufferers cope better with their illness and enhance the quality of their lives.
Frank, an accident inspector with the Department of Transport and Karen, a lecturer at the Dundalk Institute of Technology, were at the centre yesterday.
Ita’s parents, Phil and Martin, brothers Batt and Brendan and sisters Joan, Clare and Phil, from Templemore, Co Tipperary, were also there to pay tribute to a brave and courageous woman.
“She was really sensitive to other people’s needs and we miss her so much,” said Joan yesterday. “It is especially difficult for us today because she is not here for the opening.”
Joan said they were really proud of Ita, who had worked really hard to establish the Leinster Area Retreat and Cancer Centre (LARCC).
Ita, who was single and lived in Blackrock, Co Dublin, was personnel manager and group general manager for the Ward Anderson Group and IMC Cinemas.
“She was a very talented person and really found her niche when she joined the Ward Anderson Group. She was a people organiser and knew how to get the best out of them,” said Joan.
When Ita, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in September 1999, told Joan of her dream to establish the centre, she simply told her to go for it.
Ita’s family never doubted she would see it through.
“Ita never really thought of herself. She always put other people first which made me quite nervous sometimes because I was worried she mightn’t look after herself. But I think she was aware of her diagnosis from the beginning; that the prognosis was not good and that her time here was fast running out.”
Ita decided to open the centre after spending a week in a similar but more expensive centre in Bristol two years ago. Her ambition was to set up a more affordable centre here.
As LARCC is a charity and a non-profit organisation, residential course fees are kept to a minimum.
“What Ita has done is left part of herself that will live on. She has left a legacy to people just like her who feel they have nowhere to go after they have been treated for cancer in hospital. We are all terrifically proud of her,” said Joan.
