Presenting a cheque to Bernie McHugh, operations manager at LARCC, Multyfarnham, were the members of the Personal Effectiveness Group in the Parish Community Centre, including: Margaret Grehan, Katerina Shelepa, Marcella Russu, Lilija Krukovska, Zora Basic, Niall Quinn, Ernesta Gurina and Nataliia Dolynenko. Missing from photo are tutor Maureen Murtagh, and Amani Shnaiba.

WCPM Coffee morning raises more than €1200 for LARCC

The Personal Effectiveness Group at the Women’s Community Projects based in Mullingar Parish Centre raised €1,284.65 for LARCC from their coffee morning in mid-March.

Bernie McHugh, LARCC operations manager, said the money raised would benefit services offered at the community based cancer support centre in Multyfarnham, while the event also helped raise the profile centre.

“This amount of money is fabulous – to generate that over three or four hours on that morning was amazing. The participants in the class did exceptional work in that they did a lot of home baking, so there was a gorgeous display of food on the day,” Bernie told the Westmeath Examiner.

“Many of the participants are of different nationalities so they brought a taste of their own country to the cooking on the morning, and it was lovely. They put an awful lot of work into it. “And while the money is most welcome,” said Bernie, “it’s also about being remembered because it’s a busy charity scene in Mullingar. There’s a lot of us (charities) and we’re all doing fabulous work.

“So events like this coffee morning provide a platform for us to get the message out, again, about who we are, what we do and where we’re based,” she said.

LARCC offers counselling and therapies and a range of different services for cancer patients and their families, including children impacted by a cancer diagnosis.

“That might be smallies who are sick themselves or have been impacted by mam or dad being sick at home,” said Bernie.

“We have a nurse support helpline, MLD, which is the manual lymph drainage service, breastcare service for women who have been through surgery for their cancer, and there is a number of workshops and groups like Cancer: Thriving and Surviving, a physical activity programme called Next Steps, and Gentle Yoga and Mindfulness, as well as bereavement supports available.

“People ask me all the time how do you link in with LARCC, and it always starts with a simple phone call. The door is always open, the kettle is always on, just give us a call and we’ll link you in.”