Arthur’s Phones keeping elderly connected
LOUTH woman Yvonne Mullen is doing her bit to keep the older generation connected - raising funds in memory of her Dad to donate smartphones and tablets to nursing homes throughout the region.
Yvonne was in Drogheda last Tuesday - despite the fact that it was her birthday - to deliver smartphones to Moorehall Lodge and St Mary’s Nursing Home so that elderly residents can enjoy virtual visits with loved ones who are no longer able to see them in person because of the Coronavirus restrictions.
It was a conversation with a friend who revealed her Mother was in hospital and couldn’t have any visitors that sparked the idea for Yvonne.
She launched a Facebook fundraiser called ‘Arthur’s Phones’ in memory of her Dad who passed away a year and a half ago.
‘My friend’s mother was in hospital, right at the start of all this, and she told me there were no visitors allowed in to her. My cousin is a ward sister in the Louth and she told me the situation was awful and sometimes nurses had to use their own personal phones so that patients could have a last call with their relatives.’
Yvonne initally hoped to raise €500 but the idea proved so popular that she has now raised more than €2,500 donating phones, tablets and stereos to nursing homes and hospitals throughout her native Dundalk, Ardee, Newry and now Drogheda.
‘Eldery patients cant have visitors and are confused lonely without their family visits. A lot of eldery people don’t have modern phones to actually see loved ones so I set this up and have donated to most nursing homes and hospitals in Dundalk and Ardee and it was doing so well I just wanted to spread it out to Drogheda too,’ said Yvonne.
‘It started as a spiralled.
‘I’ve raised €2,500 so far and I’ve used that to buy phones and tablets and and thing that you clip on to the phone and it can attach to a table so that it’s hands free and people can have a bit of privacy so the nurse doesn’t have to hold it. I would love if other counties and towns would go with this and do something similar so that every nursing home in the country would have the technology they need for people to keep in touch with loved ones.’
The response since I launched the fundraiser has been unbelievable, I called it Arthur’s Phones after my father who passed away 17 months ago and when I donated the phones to the Louth hospital they each had the name of a loved one belonging to whoever had donated the money for that phone.’ little idea and it has