Laois GAA club’s players – past and present – raise huge sum for local cancer charity

Players, past and present, recently came together in a Laois GAA club to raise much needed funds for a local charity.

The hurlers and footballers of Clonaslee-St Manman’s held their own internal fundraiser for Laois Hospice and handed over a cheque of €1,000 at the weekend.

Since its inception in 1989, Laois Hospice Foundation has helped to provide a palliative care service for Cancer patients, whose illness no longer responds to curative treatment.

The Hospice also provides support for the families of such patients. This total care involves doctors, nurses, a team of specialists and the clergy, who are all concerned with quality of life.

Like all charities, fundraising activities have been seriously curtailed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

On St Stephen’s Day for the last number of years, a walk took place around the village of Clonaslee and people donated money which helped Laois Hospice greatly.

The pandemic forced this event to go virtual this year and while that was a success, the players in Clonaslee felt they wanted to do their part to help.

2020 intermediate football winning captain John Rigney thanked everyone who took part.

He said: “We as players decided to organise a collection between both the footballers and hurling players – and some past players gave to it as well.

“We managed to raise €1000 in total, and we donated it to the Laois Hospice – a fantastic charity who do incredible work.

“We thought this was an ideal charity because of the fact that their St Stephen’s Day walk, that takes place in Clonaslee, was unable to go ahead physically at the end of last year and funding was down as a result.

“We recently presented a cheque to Sheila Bourke who is involved with the St Stephen’s Day walk and she is putting it in with the money that was raised virtually.

“I’d like to thank everyone who took part.”

Fair play to all!

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source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2021/04/19/laois-gaa-clubs-players-past-and-present-raise-huge-sum-for-local-cancer-charity/