Megan for Chernobyl

LOUTH Rose Megan Ferguson is getting ready to join a group of other Roses and escorts as they travel to Belarus with Adi Roche’s Chernobyl Children International. ‘I will be going out in February and I have just started fund raising so that I can bring some toys and equipment out to the children as we won’t be there long enough to do much work,’ she explains.

Megan has set up a fundraising page on the everydayhero website and has set a target of €1,500 to be raised on line, and hopes to raise twice that much before she goes to Belarus.

‘I am hoping to raise as much funds as possible and this is a very quick and easy way for people to support me,’ she says. ‘I am also organising a fund-raising event in the Carlingford Arms after Christmas.’

The twenty year old who works in The Four Seasons Hotel, Carlingford, is enjoying her reign as Louth Rose and is looking forward to travelling to Belarus to visit projects run by Adi Roche’s charity to help those still affected radiation after the Chernobyl disaster.

‘I was lucky to get the opportunity to go as only twenty are selected,’ says Megan who was moved to volunteer after watching a documentary about Chernobyl on RTE.

‘I know how tough it’s going to be, it’s not a holiday but I can’t wait to get out and lend a hand.’

As her year as Louth Rose begins to wind down, Megan says ‘it’s been a whirlwind of a year, we’ve had so many different events.’

‘We are just home from Germany where we visited the Christmas Markets and we will be going to New York for the St Patrick’s Day Parade, and there is also a trip to London planned.’

Megan says she has made lifelong friends with the other Roses and they all get together when an inter- national Rose comes to Ireland to make sure she gets a warm welcome.

‘We have all become very close friends and are like one big family now.’

As the Louth Rose, Megan is also busy fulfilling engagements at home, and opened the Craft Fair in Carlingford last weekend.