Community spirit helps family devastated by tragedies
A FAMILY left devastated by tragedy and an accidental fire have been overwhelmed by the Christmas spirit of their neighbours, friends and even total strangers.
Mary Gore was left heartbroken when an accidental electrical fire destroyed her home at Mallow, Co Cork.
But the fire was made all the more devastating by the fact it occurred just one month after the young mother and her five children, all aged under 10 years, lost her partner, Chris, to cancer.
Chris, a Defence Forces veteran, died just over one year after being diagnosed with the illness, despite a brave battle for health.
He was buried with full honours after his dedicated army service.
As if enduring their first Christmas without Chris wasn’t hard enough, the young family then lost virtually everything they owned in a house fire.
Mary arrived back to her home last Tuesday to see it on fire – and ran inside to save family photographs and her husband’s Defence Forces service medals.
However, the young family lost virtually everything else in the blaze. Mallow schools even had to help provide uniforms for the children and schoolbooks. Mary has three daughters who are triplets.
Mary’s friend Carol Guerin helped set up a GoFundMe appeal, with the support of Cork’s RedFM.
They initially hoped to raise around €1,000 but, within 24 hours, the appeal had soared to more than nine times that total as people were deeply moved by the Gore family’s Christmas plight.