Brosna native, London domiciled, Thomas Murphy recently handed over a cheque for €1,439.63 to the Kerry Hospice Foundation at a specially convened meeting in Castleisland. The amount was raised by Thomas in his local pub in the UK.
A plant hire business owner in the the London area, he came up with the idea of doing something for his native patch ahead of a trip home in August.
“My local is The Adam & Eve Pub in Hayes, Middlesex and I just went in there one evening and asked my mates to donate £50 and £100 and they all came up trumps. There was no such thing as organising any fundraising event or anything like that,” said Thomas who has spent the past 44 years in London.
“The link is that my neice here, Lisa Cox did the Ring of Kerry Cycle in July for the Kerry Hospice Foundation. We all know how important that development is for the county.
I wanted to sponsor her in that and I got the idea of a whip-around ‘over’ in London. It was a straight question, will you or won’t you – and they all did – fair play to them. So, you could say that we all sponsored and supported her and the charity.
And that’s how we are here this evening and that’s how the cheque came about,” said Thomas.
In receiving the donation, Kerry Hospice Foundation PRO, Conor Cusack thanked Mr. Murphy and Lisa Cox for their efforts.
“The Ring of Kerry Cycle has been a great boost to us this year. And, here we are a couple of months later, it’s still giving.
“I hope Thomas Murphy will convey our sincere thanks to all his friends in The Adam & Eve Pub in London for their kindness and I’d like to assure them their kindness is all greatly appreciated,” said Mr. Cusack.
The Kerry Hospice Foundation (KHF) was established in 1990 as a voluntary organisation. The Kerry Home Care Team was founded by the KHF in conjunction with the Southern Health Board and with some funding from the Irish Cancer Society.
The Foundation funds a wide range of palliative care services in Kerry. These include counselling services such as bereavement and alternative therapies, like: reflexology, aromatherapy, reikii.
For more information on the Kerry Hospice Foundation you can contact: Kerry Hospice Foundation, Kerry General Hospital, Tralee, Co. Kerry. Tel : 066 71 84085 Or log onto: http://www.kerryhospice.com/