BUMBLEance documentary airing on TG4
THE BUMBLEance children’s ambulance service will tonight (January 15) be subject to a one-hour profile documentary on TG4.
The documentary – ‘BUMBLEance: Aistear Álainn – is produced by Geoff Power and directed by Martin Danneels, and focuses on the Kerry-based charity, which uses eleven vehicles to provide its service, as well as the donated use of private airplanes and helicopters to facilitate its BUMBLEair division.
The charity provides its services nationwide, free-of-charge.
Keel-based couple Mary and Tony Heffernan founded the service shortly before their daughter, Saoirse, died age five in January 2011. Saoirse had been battling a rare condition called Batten disease.
Her brother, Liam, died from the same disease in 2014, also aged five. Liam received the charity’s first ‘Angel Trip’ in 2014 when a BUMBLEance transported him home to die.
The documentary will focus on three families using the service, three families facing the nightmare of caring for a critically ill child.
Among those profiled in the documentary are Ballinskelligs couple Susan and Paudie Quinlan, whose three-year-old son, JC, lives with a complicated condition that impairs his vision, hearing, and ability to walk.
He has in the past used the BUMBLEair service to attend hospital appointments in Dublin.
‘Bumbleance: Aistear Álainn’ airs at 9.30pm. Further information on the charity is available online at www.bumbleance.com.