'The BeeCon Project' is making a valuable contribution in Mayo
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Pictured at the launch was the founder of The BeeCon Project, Natasha Beegan, with Councillor Donna Sheridan, Councillor Al McDonnell, and Minister of State Dara Calleary. PHOTOS: TRISH FORDE PicasaImage 2 of 7
Natasha Beegan with sponsors Ian McDonagh (MacAuliffe’s Total Health Pharmacy), Doreen Mulroy (Multi-Colour Corporation) and Enda O’Brien (O’Brien & Sons Builders). PicasaImage 3 of 7
Rita Forde, Garda Olive Lafferty (Community Garda), Anne Ralph, Willie Ralph, Garda Mike Toland (Community Garda) and Lynda Forde. PicasaImage 4 of 7
Natasha Beegan with her husband Michael Connolly and their daughter Makayla. PicasaImage 5 of 7
Deputy Alan Dillon, Natasha Beegan and Councillor Al McDonnell. PicasaImage 6 of 7
Martin Carney, Robert Hennelly, Breaffy, Rob Hennelly and Deputy Alan Dillon. PicasaImage 7 of 7
Pictured at the launch were Darren Forde, CEO of Eco Powered Cabinets, with his daughters Emma and Lauren Forde, Makayla Connolly, daughter of Natasha Beegan, founder of The BeeCon Project, and Catherine McDonagh, daughter of Ian McDonagh of MacAuliffe’s Total Health Paharmacy, Castlebar, sponsors. PicasaThe BeeCon Project, which has been launched in Mayo, is a reusable, scalable, community-led initiative to help communities locally, nationally and internationally deliver lifesaving equipment in their area.
It is a blueprint for communities to source and secure sponsorship from local businesses in order to deliver solar or wind powered cabinets with defibrillators and all auxiliary assets to any area, with no overhead to the community.
The BeeCon Project was founded by Natasha Beegan Connolly, based in Breaffy, Castlebar.
She stated: “What started as a small idea to source and pay for a defibrillator in our community in Breaffy quickly led to this massive undertaking.”
Research undertaken by Natasha shows that having a defibrillator on site within two minutes meant up to an 80% chance of survival and that for every minute that passes, the chances of a person surviving a cardiac arrest are reduced by 7-10%.
Natasha has been a remote worker for 15 years and as a rural advocate also learned from research that over 33% of Ireland is considered rural and when it comes to Emergency Medical Response (EMS) times in eight minutes or less, rural areas fared out poorer at just 9% and this figure for urban areas was at 33%.
"Neither are good figures, but we want to be the change agents to that negative narrative,” she stated.
This was the inception of The BeeCon Project.
Natasha sourced sponsorship for the solar-powered cabinet and defibrillator from MacAuliffe’s Total Health Pharmacy in Castlebar.
The excavation and installation of the steel pole was completed by Seamus O’Brien and Sons Ltd.
The signage for the pole was sponsored by Multi-Coloured Corporation (MCC) and the solar-powered light for the pole was sponsored by CT Electric.
Each business is happier than the next to be involved and play such a vital role in supporting life-changing equipment locally.
Natasha then went about wrapping all of the reusable assets she created as part of the project in a bow and created a repository where anyone can access and repeat this initiative.
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