House sales to raise €1.5m for CF charity drive

A UNIQUE fundraising drive which will see a builder sell two four-bed houses is close to raising €1.5 million for a new cystic fibrosis (CF) unit in Cork University Hospital.

The Clonough scheme in Castleisland, Co Kerry, is the development of builder Joe Browne, whose own son suffers from the disease. He came up with the idea to sell two houses and donated the site, while each unit was built, finished and furnished through voluntary effort.

The sale of the semis — one is already gone — will go some way to Build4Life’s target and fund the budget of €4m for a unit for CF patients in Cork and Kerry.

The charity is lobbying for the creation of a 10-bed, day unit in CUH, and are also looking for a further 10 “protected beds” in the hospital’s respiratory unit.

“Cork is the second busiest centre in Ireland and that will only increase. We have 200 CF sufferers out of a national total of 1,100 and no facilities — absolutely none,” said Mr Browne.

“CF patients’ immune systems are very low and hospitals are a highly contagious environment — they don’t really want to go to hospital, but if they have to they need a bed and en suite facilities. And, as they tend to spend a lot of their time there, they need to be treated with dignity and respect. Cork University Maternity Hospital is state-of-the-art and most patients are gone in two days — and look at the luxury.”

Concerned parents have raised a lot of money — they’re close to the €1.5m target as their contribution for the unit. The rest will be funded by the HSE.

“Limerick has seen a lot of investment by JP McManus and I’m appealing for the biggest and best business people in the region to support our cause. We’ve been waiting 20 years — let’s dig in.”

The charity’s house left to be sold has 1,440 square feet and is fully furnished to showhouse standard. It is priced at €265,000 through agents Savills HOK and Sherry FitzGerald Stuart.