THERE was wonderful news this week with the announcement that West Cork will be part of a major new initiative to establish Ireland’s first preventative health centre.
The new centre, based here in the south west of the country, pledges to put local people at the axis of the project, with a different, community-centred, approach to the horrific disease.
With a preventative focus, the new initiative could well put West Cork and its hinterland on the map – for all the right reasons.
Cancer is the biggest killer in Ireland, accounting for about 30% of all deaths every year – estimated to be approximately 9,620 deaths. Getting information and preventative measures out into the community is a wonderful way of tackling the problem at source – something we are not great at doing in this country.
But West Cork has a long history of being to the forefront of cancer care in this country. Many people will acknowledge the huge role played by Caheragh native, the late Prof Gerry O’Sullivan, who was revered in the medical world for his focus on research and also a patient-centred approach to the disease.
Prof Gerry believed that research was key in moving us all closer to the cure solution. A theatre nurse who worked with him, and spoke at a special ceremony in his native Caheragh in 2002, recalled Gerry’s infectious personality.
When things got tough during a procedure, said Margaret Frahill, Gerry would often stop, look out the window and say ‘let us all look to West Cork for inspiration!’ she remembered.
Well, maybe we can look to West Cork for inspiration once more, as two people with strong West Cork links are driving this wonderful new project.
Surgical oncologist Prof Mark Corrigan, who lives in Kilmurry, is involved in the new preventative cancer strategy. He believes more emphasis needs to be put on prevention, to help people manage their own health risks.
His wife, Dr Elaine Lehane from Castletownbere, also believes that a community-centred approach is the way to go – especially in a relatively remote region like West Cork when unity of purpose has always been a mainstay of how the region functions so well and cohesively.
There will be a team of experts employed with this in mind, with a focus on providing genetic testing and getting the waiting list for the tests down from two to three years, to under two months. They want everyone in every corner of West Cork to have the same access to this facility, hence the emphasis on the ‘community’ approach.
Local health centres will also play a role and will help provide reliable information so that nobody has to resort to ‘Dr Google’!
UCC will also have a role to play, and all of this co-operation between relevant interested parties can only be a good thing.
The genetic testing programme has already been highly commended in a national excellence award – proving that the initiative is moving in the right direction already.
It is hoped that the initiative will one day be held up as an example to others of how putting community at the core of healthcare can have hugely beneficial results.
Knowing the determination and knowledge of those involved, it is hard to believe it could be any other way.
Vandals attacking democracy
SEVERAL election posters were vandalised around the region this week. And they were not acts of vandalism made in a random, childish way. The faces on the posters were specifically targeted – and were expertly cut out, as our story on page 7 illustrates.
It is a bizarre and rather puzzling defacing of the posters, with no known reason or rationale. Of course, despite the protestations of some people, on an environmental basis, election posters are still seen as an essential part of any campaign.
Some years ago, it was mooted that the day of the election poster was short-lived, and that a new generation no longer wanted to see telegraph poles or road signs adorned with adverts for their local politician or would-be representative.
But the consensus has since been that there is still merit in plastering our roadsides with images of those seeking our votes, because nobody has yet come up with a better way of imprinting those names and faces in our minds.
But every poster that is defaced needs replacing, and puts additional, and unfair, pressure on those candidates who don’t have the financial backing of big parties behind them.
It will be a shame if such foolish behaviour goes unpunished, as it is an attack on democracy itself. What’s more, it’s also a criminal offence.
