John Patrick and Séamus get motoring for worthy causes
IT’S not every day a family is so grateful for the support a day care centre gave a loved one that they published a ‘ thank you’ in local media.
That’s what Lios Póil man Séamus Devane did earlier this year after his wife, Noreen, passed away last April after a long illness. Sitting with The Kerryman this evening, Séamus joins his son, Thomas, and daughter-in-law, Mary, in recalling the care Dingle-based Gáirdín Mhuire Day Care Centre provided Noreen. It was there she enjoyed the centre’s offerings, before the bus service brought her back to Lios Póil afterwards. So impressed was Seamus, he encouraged more men and women to visit and called on businesses and locals to support the centre.
“They give them their cupán tae and barm brack at 11am,” Mary Devane explains. “At lunch, there’s a three-course meal, and they get tea and cake again before they leave. They do yoga, art work, another gang might come in to play music. They’ve hair-dressing, board games, and there’s a nurse on duty at all times.”
Another local man, John Patrick O’Sullivan, got thinking. Diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis earlier this decade, his health deteriorated in late 2015; he had to spend six weeks in hospital, much time in a wheelchair, and was on an all-day oxygen supply.
For all that, John Patrick today considers himself lucky; a lung transplant the following year gave him a new lease of life. The Devane family is synonymous with local agriculture – and this gave John Patrick an idea.
“I spoke to Séamus at Féile Lios Póil last August.” John Patrick says. “The Devanes wanted to support Gáirdín Mhuire, and I wanted to support the Irish Lung Fibrosis Association. I’d seen fund-raising tractor runs before but couldn’t remember any around here. You see the machinery they [the Devanes] have out in the yard; the opportunity was there.
“I want to help the ILFA and their continuing research and education on Lung Fibrosis. I also want to promote carrying a donor card and making your next-ofkin aware of your wishes, a vital part of the process. I’m passionate because I’m very lucky to be here talking to you today.
“For me, it’s about awareness, awareness, awareness about organ donation and what you need to do. I’m also a passionate believer in ‘Opt in, Opt out,’ where everyone is considered to have constented to donate when they die, unless they’ve declared otherwise.”
The West Kerry Tractor Run, Mórchuaird Tarracóra Corca Dhuibhne, is set for Sunday, November 25, with registration at the fish farm in Lios Póil from 12pm before a 1pm departure. Registration is free, with buckets out on the day. The run will head west for Ventry, and the full route is available on the dedicated Facebook page. Thereafter, there will be food; refreshments; face-painting and children’s art competitions; and craic at the Marina Inn bar, with organisers thankful to the bar and the Kavanagh family. The tractor run itself is only the centrepiece of a weekend’s festivities.
The day before, collections take place at a number of local shops as well as the mart in Dingle. The mart will also be the venue for the sale of an in-calf heifer which has been presented by a local farmer, Colm Murphy. Its estimated value will go to the initiative, but the sale has been strongly promoted by Threshing Cancer, which will receive funds should the speckle park fivestar heifer, sought-after for its breeding, make more than its estimated value. An auction of a range of incredible items donated by kind donors takes place also in the Marina Inn that evening. There will follow much ceol agus craic.
“We’ve gotten a fantastic response,” John Patrick said. “We were around to businesses and local people already, and they were brilliant. Transparency is also of vital importance to us, and we’re keeping the costs down to raise as much as possible. We have a fantastic committee of 10 or 12 members, and we’ll keep that committee alive and the account alive. We don’t want this to be a one-off, because there are plenty more good causes in the locality that we’d like to support in times ahead.”
For full information on how to become an organ donor, visit www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/o/organ-donation/.
Further information, including the brilliant items being auctioned, is available from www. facebook.com/ Wktractorrun/ or by phoning either John Patrick at (087) 280 9801 or his daughter, Sharon, at (087) 411 0583. You can donate online at ‘ West Kerry Tractor Run’ on GoFundMe.com.