Health charity hails €2m in donations

Ireland might be in the grip of a major recession, but that has not stopped big-hearted Cork people from donating almost €2m to a vital health service charity since the crisis began.

The Mercy University Hospital foundation is expected to reveal today that the magic figure has been reached after five years of public donations.

Since it was established in 2008 the group, which alongside radio station Cork’s 96fm oversees the Giving for Living radiothon, has helped to fund vital cancer, hospice, and paediatric services across the county.

Despite the ongoing damage the economic crisis has caused the country, donations have stayed at between €300,000 and €400,000 every year.

At the group’s 2012 update last summer the total amount of donations stood at €1.7m, with a massive €410,000 of the pot coming in the previous 12 months alone. And, while the group is urging the public to keep on giving in order to save lives, senior officials are hoping its latest update today will see the total figure pass the €2m mark.

“These donations I would say have helped thousands of people since the foundation began,” said hospital foundation chief executive Micheal Sheridan.

“Between 2008 and 2010 we specifically on paediatrics services for the Mercy University Hospital and Cork University Hospital.

“However, since then we have extended it to cancer services and the Marymount Hospice, and the money really is doing so much good there.”

The recession-era donations, he said, have come almost entirely from the public, who have used whatever spare change they have to help those in need.

In the process, public health services which would otherwise have been left without funding have been made available to seriously ill patients and those suffering in pain.

“One of the biggest amounts of donations comes from the Bus Eireann station in Cork City.

“Every year they put a skip there and the drivers man it for three days on behalf of the radiothon. It raises about €20,000 a year and that’s just from people dropping spare change into the skip. There are also a number of coffee mornings that have been set up around the city and county which have raised in excess of €1,000 each, and we really just want to thank everyone for giving.

“That money is going towards things like the new CT centre in the Mercy to investing in comfortable seats for patients.

“Last year it was even used to fund a schools awareness programme on prostate cancer. That reached more than 5,500 teenage boys, and it wouldn’t have been funded without this,” he said.

The exact amount of donations achieved by the radio-thon - which has become a staple part of Cork’s charitable mindset - to date will be revealed later today.

To donate, contact Mercy University Hospital and CUH or see radiothon.ie