Jack and Jill Foundation hoping to raise €1m. to support Mayo children
Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation hopes to raise €1 million through its Christmas Appeal to support Mayo children with highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions to stay at home, in their community, where they belong.
The nationwide charity, which currently funds and provides vital in-home nursing care and respite support for nine children in Mayo with severe to profound neurodevelopmental delay, up to the age of six, recorded a 16 per cent rise in the hours of nursing care it provided to families in 2021 and predicts a further uplift again this year.
The charity, which also provides end-of-life care for all children up to the age of 6, irrespective of diagnosis, has supported 94 families in Mayo since it was founded by Jonathan Irwin and Mary Ann O’Brien 25 years ago.
Launching the charity’s Home for Christmas appeal, CEO Carmel Doyle, said: “With more children under our care than ever before, public support is vital in helping us raise €1 million by Christmas to keep our service going – a service that is a lifeline to many of our families.
"We have a big fundraising mountain to climb to keep us going to Christmas, and beyond, and we need people in Mayo to support local Jack and Jill families in their community by signing up as a monthly donor, or by buying something from our Christmas Gift Collection.
"There’s lots to choose from including stunning candles from Paul and William Costelloe, our ‘Odlums Big Book of Baking’, Incognito Art Prints, signed by our wonderful Incognito artists, Gift of Time cards and exclusively designed Christmas cards from Kildare artist Laura Dempsey aka Pickled Pom Pom.
"By making a donation or purchase people are supporting local families through home nursing care hours that translate into a real gift of time this Christmas.”
Jack and Jill was set up by parents Jonathan Irwin and Mary Ann O’Brien to help parents keep their child well cared for in the comfort of their own home.
It was established in memory of their son Jack Irwin who passed away at home at the age of 22 months on December 13, 1996.
This vital service has no means test, no waiting list, and no unnecessary paperwork and red tape.
The charity is hugely dependant on public donations to fund Jack and Jill’s in-home nursing care and respite for children up to the age of 6 with severe to profound neurodevelopmental delay, including children with brain injury, genetic diagnosis, cerebral palsy and undiagnosed conditions. Another key part of Jack and Jill’s service is end-of-life care for children under the age of 6, regardless of the diagnosis.
This Christmas, members of the public can give the gift of time to families cared for by Jack and Jill, with a Christmas donation or gift purchase translating into specialist home nursing care hours for local children and their families.