The Irish Cancer Society has been forced to cancel its on-street collections due to take place around the country next week over concerns about the spread of coronavirus.
98 % of the Society funding comes from the public, and 50% of that is raised on Daffodil Day.
Since the society’s CEO Avril Power announced the cancellation of the annual fundraiser, an online drive encouraging people to hold a virtual coffee morning next friday 27 March has taken place.
The public are being encouraged to take a photo at either work or home having a coffee and share the image using the #digitaldaffodilday.
Each person is asked to support the Irish Cancer Society’s crucial work during the Covid19 pandemic, by texting DAFFODIL to 50300 to give €4.
You can also donate online through the website www.cancer.ie.
Every 3 minutes a person in Ireland will get a Cancer diagnosis. It’s predicted that, by 2045, Ireland will see a doubling of incidents of Cancer.
In a further fundraising blow many of the charity’s iconic relay for life events across the country have either been postponed or cancelled this year.
In 2019, 188 cancer patients in Cork received 617 nights of care through the Society Night Nursing service during the last days of their life.
Conversely, 102 patients were brought to 1,007 chemotherapy related appointments reducing the risk of infection for patients, who would normally travel to their appointment on public transport.
Nicola McMahon, Southern Community fundraiser for the Cancer Society said the driver programme is helping to save lives.
“We have had people give up treatment because it was either too expensive, they couldn’t pay a taxi or they had no way of getting to their appointments, until they found out about the volunteer driver programme.”
