Charity leans on public in crutch campaign

A UNIQUE recycling campaign has been launched by the Jack & Jill Foundation to collect the estimated one million crutches lying idle in Irish homes.

The nationwide Crutch Recycling project aims to raise money to support severely disabled children by providing critical home nursing care.

The charity is asking people to deposit their crutches at any of Applegreen’s service stations across the country over the next three months.

Some well-known Irish people like Denis O’Brien, Joe Duffy and Mattie McGrath have already donated their crutches to get the campaign started.

The crutches will be sold on as scrap and the aluminum melted down into its raw form and reused. This new campaign runs until August.

Jonathan Irwin, CEO and founder of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation thanked Dr Fergus Leahy from Tralee General Hospital for coming up with the idea.

“We know the country is drowning in crutches that can’t be returned through the hospital system,

? he said.

“We’re hoping to raise over

?¬250,000 with this three month crutch harvest.

“With less than 20 per cent of our funding coming from the State, we rely more than ever on the public to donate cash, mobile phones and now crutches to keep Jack & Jill going. I want to urge people to dig out those old crutches and visit their local Applegreen station as soon as they can.

?

The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation was set up in 1997 by Jonathan and his wife Senator Mary Ann O’Brien to provide home nursing care to young children in Ireland who have developmental delay as a result of brain damage.

They decided to set up Jack & Jill based on their own experience with their son Jack. The Jack & Jill model of home nursing and respite care now supports up to 300 families in Ireland today and has helped over 1,500 families since 1997.

The service includes home visits, advice, information, funding, lobbying and bereavement support.