Sell and support!The Mercy Hospital Annual Raffle to raise funds for The Mercy Stroke Appeal

19th September 2014

In Ireland, 10,000 people will suffer from a stroke this year, and 2,000 will die as a result, and for those who survive, a stroke can take away life as it was. The Stroke Unit at the Mercy University Hospital Cork is one of the newest facilities of its kind in Ireland and was the first specialist Stroke Unit to open in Cork. Over the coming weeks, staff at the Mercy Hospital Foundation will telephone hundreds of households across Cork City and County asking them to support the charity’s Annual Raffle, which this year will raise funds for The Mercy Stroke Appeal.

In the next three years The Mercy Stroke Appeal will raise €200,000 to invest in upgrading the unit and facilities. The quality of care for stroke patients will be further enhanced as funds raised through the raffle will be used to purchase three specialist bedside chairs at a cost of €1,600 each. These chairs are pressure graded to allow patients who have been paralysed or disabled due to their stroke, to sit for longer. In a normal chair they would only be able to sit for short periods of time before having to be put back to bed, but with these chairs, they can be lifted from the bed and sit up, to help engage better with family and friends, to try eating and drinking, and to help with rehabilitation.

Funds raised will also be used to commission three modular wheelchairs, at a cost of €3,000 each, that can be tilted and adapted to the patient’s needs to again help with recovery and rehabilitation.
Funds will also be used to support the Stroke Unit with a number of other items to make every day of recovery more comfortable for patients at The Mercy, such a pressure cushions.

Speaking about life after a stroke, Karen Fitzgerald Stroke CNS (Clinical Nurse Specialist) at The Mercy said “Imagine not being able to talk to your loved ones. Imagine only being able to watch as the world around you continues. Imagine your busy hectic life completely changing in an instant, to be left disabled and dependant on other people. At The Mercy, even in the midst of the medical emergency, we not only fight for their life, we strive to maintain their dignity and self-worth. Funds raised by the 2014 Raffle will not just help us save lives, but restore dignity and hope and it will also help us to strive towards helping patients get their lives back to the way they were. Sometimes it is the small things that make a big difference.”

Tickets for the Annual Raffle are €3 each or two for €5, with great prizes to be won when the draw takes place on Friday 28th November. First prize is €2,000 cash, and second is €1,000. Every ticket sold will support doctors and nurses at The Mercy to respond as quickly as possible, and will help provide equipment to give as much dignity as possible to someone recovering from a stroke. By selling tickets you are transforming lives and as an added incentive, for every book of tickets sold, the seller will get a free complimentary ticket to enter the draw themselves.

Julie Harris, Donor Development and Communications Manager at the Mercy Hospital Foundation said “Our mission is to support the Hospital in delivering the highest quality of patient care by raising funds to support advancements and innovation in the treatment and care of patients at the Mercy Hospital, the People’s Hospital. We promise to do our very best to provide you with a world class hospital, right on your doorstep, and this is only possible through the help of our supporters and donors, like those who buy, and indeed sell, tickets for our Annual Raffle.”

If you would like to sell tickets on behalf of the Mercy Hospital Foundation or have any queries relating to the 2014 Raffle, please call the Raffle Hotline on (021) 4274076, log on to www.mercyfundraising.ie or email info@mercyfundraising.ie.

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