President of the Castletroy and District Lions Club Rita O’Donoghue, would like to thank all who helped and attended the table quiz in aid of Cliona’s Foundation at the Castletroy Park Hotel on Friday April 21.

Though incapacitated at the time of the event Ms O’Donoghue said the evening was a great success in helping to raise funds and awareness for Cliona’s Foundation.

Cliona’s Foundation is a Limerick based charity, established in 2007 by Brendan and Terry Ring, that provides financial assistance directly to parents of children with life limiting or chronic complex care needs throughout Ireland, to help with the non medical expenses related to caring for their child.

Following the death of their daughter Cliona, from an inoperable brain tumour, Brendan and Terry set up Cliona’s Foundation, in honour of their daughter. Since its launch, the charity has raised in excess of €1.25 million euro over the past 10 years and provided assistance to over 400 families in 29 Counties.

“We were delighted to get the call from Rita advising that the Castletroy Lions Club had selected Cliona’s Foundation as beneficiary of their Annual quiz. The Lions Club do tremendous charitable work and we have been very lucky to have benefitted from their fundraising activities in previous years.

“Cliona’s Foundation relies solely on fundraising events and private and corporate donations, so this event and the monies generated from it are very important to us, to enable us continue support families who need it,” said spokesperson for Cliona’s Foundation Phil Deegan.

Phil said events like this are important for the foundation, not only for benefitting from the money received but also for the opportunity to raise awareness for the work the foundation does, such as being the only charity in the country to provide this type of support across a broad range of conditions, from birth up to the age of 16 years

The money raised from this event will go directly towards providing assistance to a family of a child with a life limiting illness, to help alleviate the pressure and stress associated with the non medical costs, such as car parking charges, accommodation, travel expenses, childcare costs or specialised equipment.

“This week we were able to send out cheques to 8 families. For one of these families both children have a life limiting illness and are travelling abroad for treatment with one of them. Both parents have taken leave from work and will be incurring significant costs at home and abroad.

“Each year is a challenge in terms of fundraising, and while we are delighted our profile has increased significantly over the past 2 years, that has also meant an increase in the number of applications we are receiving on a weekly basis. Ideally we want to be in a position that we do not have to refuse any family that meet the criteria our support.

“It is the many thank you letters we receive back from families that reinforce for us the need that’s out there, the impact that our support has and the drive for us to continue on our journey,” said Phil.

The Castletroy and District Lions Club is a volunteer organisation that organises fundraising events with every penny raised going directly to good causes in local communities  All members of Lion Clubs International are committed to serving local communities.

www.clionasfoundation.ie

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