Kerry Hospice – 5 4 3 2 1

The Kerry Hospice provides an essential service to the most vulnerable in our community. Its main objective is to make patients, that require palliative care, as comfortable as possible and keep them in their home environment for as long as possible. The organisation also supports the families of the patient throughout this difficult time.

Listowel/Tralee  

The Listowel District Hospital has two dedicated hospice rooms which opened in 1997 and have been continually upgraded.  In Tralee the Suaimhneas Centre was opened in 2007 and since 2017 has a fifteen-bed patient unit that has been operating to full capacity since under the leadership of Dr Patricia Sheehan (originally from the Square).

Funding

In addition to the in-patient treatment the Kerry Hospice also spends approximately €100,000 per annum providing plaintive care in nursing homes, district hospitals and in the patients’ own homes.  Volunteers of the Kerry Hospice are committed to supporting the running of the in-bed unit to the sum of €400,000 per annum for the next five years until 2022.  All funds raised in Kerry stays in Kerry and the Kerry Hospice is solely run by volunteers.

The Challenge

With this in mind I was delighted to accept an invitation from the Hospice group to take part in the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Challenge between 22nd – 25th August next. This involves cycling the ring of Kerry on Thursday, climbing Carrantuohill on Friday, cycling from Killarney to Dingle and climbing Mount Brandon on Saturday and cycling back to Dingle on Sunday.  I will be a tired lad after that! The article this week is not a regular legal article rather it brings to the attention of our readers the good work that this essential organisation undertakes.