Cork hospital porters raise thousands for charity with deposit return scheme

Cork University Hospital porters John Collins, left, with John Keenan, centre, and John Lenihan pushing a haul of used bottles and cans from the hospital as they continue their fundraising effort for CUH Charity in August. File picture: Brian Lougheed.

More than €10,000 has been raised by three hospital porters at Cork University Hospital (CUH) by recycling empty bottles and cans.

Earlier in April, three friends working together at the hospital came up with the idea to collect the empty bottles and cans left behind on the grounds of CUH.

Originally, the plan had been to buy themselves a takeaway on the last night shift of the month with the money collected after recycling them through the deposit return scheme.

However, John Collins, John Lenihan, and John Keenan — dubbed the three Johnnies — decided that the money collected could make a real difference and decided to turn it into a fundraiser for the hospital’s charity.

With the blessing of management, the three Johnnies were able to convince medical staff, patients and visitors to join them in their quest. Drop-off points have been set up throughout the hospital.

Today, the campaign has raised over €10,000, and since April, they have collected some 67,000 bottles.

From various drop-off boxes on the hospital campus, the men have sorted through the collections on their days off and during the breaks before bringing them over to the Re-Turn machines.

John Collins said that while the campaign has been hard at times, they get a “real kick out of it when we see the money go up”. 

There has been an outstanding amount of support coming in from everyone.

Mr Collins, who is from Douglas, shared one anecdote where a woman who had been sick and was recovering in a ward called on one of the nurses to donate a euro to the Johnnies’ campaign.

“We greatly appreciate it, and it really put a smile on our face,” he said.

He added that two other women in the ward gave €10 towards their campaign.

Mr Collins said he hopes to get more people involved with the fundraising campaign so that they could raise €30,000.

“We would love to make it bigger, if there were more people onboard we could raise €30,000,” he told the Irish Examiner.

“We don’t want to be pestering anyone or annoying anyone, but if anyone wants to help out, if they are up in the hospital or if they have bags (of bottles or cans) at home we will take them, just bring them to CUH charity,” Mr Collins added.

To date, the three Johnnies have raised nearly €10,500 for the hospital’s charity.