Hope Cancer Support Centre working on with no income
LAST weekend should have seen the main fundraising event for the Hope Cancer Support Centre take place in Enniscorthy.
The significance of the Hope & Dream 10 road run for the organisation can be highlighted by the fact that last year the event generated €180,190 last year which was divided between the Hope centre and Wexford Hospice Homecare.
The centre’s General Manager, Sean McCarthy, said that in the current crisis the management team at the centre have taken the advice of the National Cancer Society and the National Cancer Control Programme which is an arm of the HSE.
‘Most of the services we provide have all been cancelled,’ said Mr McCarthy.
‘All of our touch therapies have had to stop such as massage therapy and manual lymphatic drainage,’ he added. ‘They have all had to be cancelled.’ However, the Hope centre is still providing counselling services and they are being done by phone at present.
‘We are working on a skeleton staff so there is a presence in the centre and people are still ringing up looking for information or assistance,’ said Mr McCarthy.
‘There could be people with a new diagnosis or people who know someone with a new diagnosis,’ he added. ‘That type of support is still there.’ Mr McCarthy also highlighted the fact that anyone wishing to get information can still do so through the Hope Centre website at www.hopesupportcentre.ie or through the organisation’s Facebook page.
However, people can also still phone the office on 053 9238555 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday, and a member of staff will be on hand to deal with queries over the phone.
‘We also have information packs and we can post them out to clients if and when they need them,’ said Mr McCarthy.
People can also contact the centre by email through info@hopesupportcentre.ie
Obviously, the postponement of the Hope & Dream10 run and the loss of the revenue from it will have a big impact on the centre but Mr McCarthy said there are many other smaller fundraising events that people organise throughout the year, in addition to donations, that have also ceased for now.
‘The thing is we don’t know when things will return to normal and obviously the Hope & Dream 10 has been rescheduled for October and hopefully that will go ahead as planned,’ said Mr McCarthy.
However, at present the centre has no income stream but everyone is remaining as positive as possible and the management team is looking forward to when services will be able to resume.
‘We don’t know when [the situation] will change but we want to get back to the same level of service as soon as we’re back up and running as normal,’ said Mr McCarthy.
‘The Board and staff are doing everything they can to ensure that the level of service of the centre remain on into the future,’ he added.
People wishing to get information from the centre can do so by phoning 053 9238555 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday to Friday or through the centre’s social media pages.