Kinnegad Women’s Shed raise funds for Palliative Care Unit

Thomas Lyons

Last Tuesday the members of the Kinnegad Women’s Shed (KWS) gathered at Serenity House to hand over a cheque for €4,200 to representatives from the Palliative Care Unit in the Camillian Nursing Centre.

The Women’s Shed is a group of like-minded women over the age of 18 from the area who have been engaged in charity work since first established three years ago. From Serenity House they facilitate chats, arts and crafts, games nights, flower arranging and a host of other activities.

Fundraising for local charities has become a staple of their annual activity. This year they collected for the 57-bed, not-for-profit nursing home operated by the Order of St Camillus in Killucan. The centre works in close coordination with the North Westmeath Hospice Foundation to provide expert, dedicated palliative and respite care for older adults at the end of life.

The shed has hosted numerous community fundraisers, card drives, and coffee mornings to raise thousands of euro for local charities. In the last three years, the KWS has been a strong, active supporter of the Palliative Care Unit at St Camillus Nursing Centre.

Anne Marie Bracken of KWS explained all about the most recent fundraiser: “Each year Kinnegad Women’s Shed selects a charity to benefit from our fundraising event. This year the ladies chose the Palliative Care Unit in the St Camillus Nursing Centre, Killucan.

“Normally we would host a coffee morning. That has brought in an average of about €2,000, which is good. Our chairperson Geraldine [Holme] is mega into cards, so she thought we could top up the amount with a card night. We approached Lagan Cement, who are now Breedon Concrete, for sponsorship to host the event.

“Breedon Cement very kindly donated €1,000. That enabled us to host the event and give better prices. The card night brought in nearly €2,000 as well, hence we hit a total of €4,200.”

Anne Marie said the sponsors were delighted to come on board: “They’re neighbours of mine. They’re good community players. Every Christmas they host an event for all the children and the grandchildren of the area, and Santa Claus comes and the place is lit up and it’s a great event.”

Breedon Cement are a leading construction materials group who manufacture bulk and bagged cement, serving projects across Ireland and Britain. Their primary Irish manufacturing facility in Kinnegad is the most modern plant of its kind in Ireland.

“It’s an opportunity for the business to give back to the community,” Sarah O’Sullivan of Breedon Cement said of the company’s support for the fundraiser. “Events like this encourage people to come together.”

Her colleague, Ray Archipova, added: “We have a ‘good neighbour’ policy in place because we like to be good neighbours. We like helping out the community and seeing people working together for such a good cause.”

Chair of KWS, Geraldine Holme, agreed: “The ladies chose palliative care because the St Camillus Nursing Centre is close to a lot of people in the area. In the county of Westmeath there are only four palliative care beds and two of them are in the community.

“I suppose we’re all about women, supporting women, but also supporting the community. This is only our third year. We’ve had our fundraiser for cancer support for the first year, Alzheimer’s in year two and now palliative care. Our donations have gone up each year, €2,000 in the first year, last year to €3,000, and now over €4,000.” The St Camillus Nursing Centre Killucan has been caring for older people since its foundation in 1976. It works with the North Westmeath Hospice Foundation to offer both palliative and respite care for people coming to the end of their life.

Brother John O’Brien received the donation on behalf of the centre: “For the last 20 years, St Camillus has had a relationship with the North Westmeath Hospice to provide home care. We have two of their inpatient beds. People come to us either for respite, to give families a bit of a breathing space, or they come for end of life care.”

The service offered by St Camillus Nursing Centre Killucan is vital: “We look after adults of all ages. We try to create a sense of an openness, a home from home, while also realising that nothing replaces your own home.

“We want to support people at the end of their journey, and support their families, not necessarily to come to terms with things, but support them at a time when all they’re really looking for is more life, longer life, but that the one thing they can’t have. We see our role as just being there in the background, doing the bits and pieces, and just giving them the support they need at that time,” Brother John explains.

The respite aspect of that care is hugely important for the families who can avail of it: “We believe the families of people who are with us for the end of their journey through life are the real caregivers, because they’re the people who have been there when the times were tough. They were there at home looking after people. They’ve walked the walk with people.

“Our role is not taking over from them, but helping them, supporting, lightening the load a bit for them. We’re not replacing people’s families in caring, but we’re just allowing them to start being families again, and not caregivers. The one thing that people say to us quite often is “we’ve discovered what it is to be a wife, or a husband, or a partner, or children”.

“Whereas before, at home especially, people became professional caregivers, and they lost the intimacy of being a part of someone’s life. Hopefully with us, they can reinvent that,” Brother John concluded.