A WEST Cork community that has raised more than €1.3m for charity over the last 21 years will be giving away €10,000 in a draw on December 5th.
Kathleen Kirby, one of 14 voluntary members of the Caheragh Annual Threshing and Vintage Day committee, confirmed that the prize draw – in aid of Cork Cancer Research – has taken the place of the traditional annual gathering in the village.
Tickets – priced €20 or €50 for a book of three – can be bought from committee members by emailing [email protected], or by making a direct donation online at the idonate.ie website. The winners will share seven cash prizes, including a top prize of €5,000.
‘Due to Covid-19 restrictions, we were unable to hold the vintage day on the second Sunday in October,’ said Kathleen, ‘but we are determined to continue our fundraising efforts.’
‘We all have a personal reason for doing so, including the fact that it was our own Prof Gerry O’Sullivan – who was a native of Milleenhorna, Caheragh – who established Cork Cancer Research in 1999. More than two decades later, we are happy to report that it has resulted in the successful treatment of many types of cancers, and we believe Gerry, who died in 2012, would have been proud of its success.’
Mary Cadogan, a new member of the Caheragh committee, can attest to that. She told The Southern Star: ‘My father, Francis, had a basal cell carcinoma (BCC), which is highly treatable, surgically removed in 2009. It reoccurred in the summer of 2018. It started small, but developed very fast and was soon an aggressive BCC. On that occasion, my father was successfully treated as an outpatient with electrochemotherapy.’
Mary said: ‘That’s a good indication of the level of progress that has been made in the treatment of cancer. Cancer is accountable for about 30% of all deaths in Ireland. But if we all work together, we can make a difference.’
