Reynolds leads child cancer campaign

Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, whose wife Kathleen survived cancer, is spearheading a €1m campaign to save the lives of children with the disease.

The cross-border Children for Children foundation will now use the funds to set up a tele-medicine link between Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin and a top hospital in the US.

Consultants at the world-renowned St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, will help Irish medics to promptly diagnose and successfully treat children with cancer at the Dublin hospital via special hi-tech video and audio links.

Data from medical equipment – including x-rays and lab results – in theatres in Dublin will be beamed thousands of miles across the Atlantic to help US specialists assist their colleagues here.

The Children for Children organisation now has plans to raise more money to extend the ground-breaking service to other hospitals in the country.

Mr Reynolds, who was Taoiseach in the early 1990s, said: “Basically, we ultimately aim to give every child the best cancer treatment in the world - in his or her own local hospital.”

“It’s the very least we can offer these children so that we can give them a decent chance in life.”

St Jude’s in Memphis is a world leader in treating childhood cancers. The tie-up will be the first collaboration between St Jude’s and a European country.

The charity was founded in Ennis nearly 12 months ago by Mr Reynolds, aged 72, who teamed up with other families whose loved ones had suffered or died from cancer.

The campaign got its name from the thousands of children north and south of the Border who initially gave €1 each from their pocket money to kick-start the campaign.

Mr Reynolds, who succeeded Charles Haughey as Taoiseach from 1992-1994, was asked to spearhead the campaign as his wife Kathleen had herself successfully survived breast cancer during 1991.

Mr Reynolds said: “Our family went through a lot with Kathleen’s illness and I was glad to get involved in this very worthy cause when I was asked.

“I don’t think it’s any exaggeration to say that the cancer awareness work we do now has changed both our lives.”

Despite passing the €1m mark to set up the Crumlin/Memphis link, Mr Reynolds wants to raise more funds to extend the tele-medicine link to other selected hospitals across the country.

The charity has also encouraged people to agree to donate money in their wills.

A Co Clare farmer, Tommy Power, helped push the fund over the €1m euro mark when he donated €18,000 in his will to the charity.

The 73-year-old, who died in 2001, also gave a total of €90,000 to several other causes, including the Irish Wheelchair Association and Guide Dogs for the Blind.

Mr Reynolds said: “I thank Mr Power from the bottom of my heart, and I would encourage others to think of organisations like us in their wills.”