Paul beats virus to help lay on London Irish meals for medics
CORKMAN Paul Whitnell, founder of the British and Irish Trading Alliance business network, beat the coronavirus after a very tough two weeks and got straight back to work (from home, like so many of us).
He has teamed up with club owner Mick Crossan and colleagues at London Irish rugby club in an effort to use the team’s chef and others, along with Crossan’s company Powerday’s resources, to cook and deliver 800 meals a day to doctors and nurses at various hospitals across the British capital.
They are sorely in need of food produce and clear plastic containers which can hold a serving of lasagne, he told Ergo.
Closer to home, Cian O’Flaherty’s Feed the Heroes effort has delivered tens of thousands of meals after raising more than €500,000.
Of course, numerous other businesses, large and small — too many to cover in one article — are stepping up to do what they can, along with sports clubs, charities and various community groups.
Whitnell’s fellow Corkmen, entrepreneurs Pat Phelan — whose Sisu Clinics co-founders have, as doctors, answered the HSE call-up — and ‘Mr China’ Liam Casey have organised free hire cars, accommodation and personal protective equipment (PPE) shipments.
Meanwhile, the Dubai-based philanthropist and Ecology Foundation founder, Limerick native Declan Murphy, has formed a team to supply PPE and respirators, many of which he is keen to fund with partners and send to a number of African and other countries which are severely under-resourced.