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Irish skipper Séamus puts up €20k to feed staff on the frontline

IRISH soccer captain Séamus Coleman has made a donation of €20,000 to the ongoing Feed The Heroes fundraising campaign to thank the people on the frontline fighting the coronavirus for all their hard work.

In a video posted online yesterday, the Everton defender, 31, said: ‘We will get through this; stay positive and keep fighting.’

The Feed The Heroes campaign started on March 15 and has already amassed €315,000 in donations to fund the delivery of food packages for doctors, nurses and other frontline staff fighting the spread of the coronavirus.

Coleman’s gesture is just one of a number of actions people are taking every day to aid healthcare workers during the crisis.

The Handmade Soap Company reportedly donated 100 bottles of hand creams and lotions to staff in Dublin’s St Vincent’s Hospital.

Also, Tesco announced over the weekend that store staff would be rewarded for their hard work with a 10% rise on their hourly rate backdated to March 9. The raise will be in effect until May 1, when the situation will be reviewed.

In addition, Musgrave Group, the owners of SuperValu and Centra, announced that it will be temporarily hiring hundreds of new workers to respond to increased demand.

MEANWHILE, An Post will be giving every household free postcards to send across the country for free.

Five million postcards have been produced and they will be delivered to households this week, with more available through local post offices. An Post CEO David McRedmond said: ‘There is nothing like a personal note to raise our spirits and remind us that we’re not being forgotten about.’

And for anyone visiting a grave at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin, they would have been greeted by a very warm gesture this past Mother’s Day.

The florist in the cemetery was closed but a note was left to visitors explaining that, while they had shut for the first time in 26 years, they were leaving a selection of small flowers for people to place on the graves.

Twitter user Eimear Fitzmaurice said the gesture ‘filled her heart’, calling it a ‘beautiful effort’.

Yesterday, sporting goods company O’Neills announced that, with immediate effect, it will be manufacturing scrubs for health and social care trusts.

‘We are delighted to support the work of frontline healthcare staff,’ the company said.