All saints festival raises 15k for nw hospice
The Flower Festival in All Saints Church, Mullingar in November raised more than €15,000 for the North Westmeath Hospice.
The Flower Festival, which was part of All Saints’ month-long bicentenary celebrations and featured displays from some of the world’s most celebrated flower arrangers, attracted people from across the country to Mullingar over the weekend of November 21 to 23.
Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner at the presentation of the donation, North Westmeath Hospice chairman John Shaw praised All Saints for their generosity.
“It’s terrific. It’s a very substantial donation and more particularly it’s a community effort, which we love. It was also an unusual fundraiser too. We are always looking for novel ways to raise funds and the flower festival was particularly exciting from that point of view.
“It probably won’t happen again – to get a number of world class flower arrangers in one place doing something very special in this incredible building. It really was stunning. It was a fantastic community effort to help a charity that is very much community based.”
The successful running of the event, which was co-ordinated by the Moate-based florist Ethel Mitchell, was a collective effort, according to Nicole Penrose, who along with Olive Graham, Anna Rolston and Sheila Flynn arranged the parish display, ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’.
“It was brilliant fun and it was great to get to know everyone. A lot of people hadn’t been to the Church before and couldn’t believe how beautiful it is.”
Challenge for the Hospice
North Westmeath Hospice’s “biggest challenge is to try and get more people who are dying out of the hospital”, according to its chairman John Shaw.
A recent survey revealed only 32% of Westmeath people die at home and Mr Shaw says that the North Westmeath Hospice would like to see that figure rise in the years to come.
“Too many people are still dying in the hospital who don’t have access to proper palliative care, and who probably could be dying at home, if they want to. That is certainly a very big challenge for us.
“We have a fantastic home care service that do tremendous work and are recognised on the ground as being one of the best in the country, which has been our focus over the last 10 or 15 years.
“We have two beds in the hospital, which we have had for the last few years. The hospital have been very good to us. They are a hospice-friendly hospital but our big challenge is to get more people out of the hospital and into their homes.”
The hospice, which also hired a full-time social worker this year, is working closely with the HSE to try and ensure that as many local people as possible who want to spend their last days at home are able to do so, Mr Shaw says.
“Last year well over 200 people were admitted to the service and were looked after by the hospice’s nurses. They made approximately 1,300 home visits as part of the service, they were also dealing with people in our two beds in the hospital and our two beds at the Camillians in Killucan, which is very important as we can put people in there for short-term respite care.
“They work very hard. I never cease to marvel at the work they do. And it’s very much appreciated from the people of north Westmeath.”