Rotary Ireland conference hears about plans for Cancer Fund for Children’s new Mayo centre

ROTARY Ireland welcomed 240 delegates from all over Ireland and as far away as Australia, Africa, the USA and Great Britain to its annual conference at the Royal Marine Hotel in Dun Laoghaire. It was the organisation's 75th annual conference and the theme of the event was sustainability.

The conference heard from a range of speakers involved in caring for different aspects of our environment, including Dr. Matthew Jebb, director of the National Botanic Gardens in Dublin.

Rotary Ireland’s chosen charity this year is Cancer Fund for Children and two of the key speakers at the conference were Peter O’Brien, chair of the board of trustees, and 18-year-old Alex McEleney from Dublin who was diagnosed with leukaemia when he was just 11.

Peter interviewed Alex about the last seven years of intense treatment, the two relapses he experienced, and his journey to becoming a young ambassador for the charity.

Cancer Fund for Children has a residential centre in County Down which provides young people with cancer and their families from all over Ireland with a place where they can relax and spend time together.

Peter outlined to the conference their plans for a second centre in Cong, which will enable the charity to increase the number of children and parents it supports each year from 1,800 to 4,000.

Plans for the centre, which will cost around €20 million to build, are well advanced.