A new year always brings new opportunities. This year marks a special opportunity for 2 charities close to the Irish Life Staff. 

In 2017 alone, Irish Life Staff Charities donated an incredible total of €340,000 to two Irish charities, CMRF Crumlin and MS Ireland. Throughout the year our employees held various fundraising initiatives, raising a whopping €170k. The amount was then matched by Irish Life to reach this final total.

Every January staff have the chance to nominate a charity close to their heart, that they feel deserves the significant financial donation. Then Irish Life staff work hard throughout the year to fundraise for the top 2 voted charities.

With 48 charities to choose from our staff had the tough task of allocating their votes to the 2 that spoke most to them. 1751 of us voted for our preferred charities and we are very pleased to introduce our 2018 Irish Life Staff Charities:

The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA)

The Irish Motor Neurone Disease Association (IMNDA) liaises every day with people living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND). They are the only organisation of its kind in Ireland providing care and support to families affected by this terminal condition. Motor Neurone Disease is a progressive, terminal and incurable condition. It affects the everyday things that we take for granted - walking, talking, eating, even swallowing may become virtually impossible. The journey with MND is a series of losses but the IMNDA is there for support every step of the way. They consistently support approximately 370 people with Motor Neurone Disease at any one time. Everybody’s needs vary but they are there regardless of when and how they are needed. Their services are immediate and free of charge. They include:

·         Home visiting by our three MND Nurse Specialists 

·         Financial assistance towards home care 

·         Providing specialist medical equipment free of charge to our clients

·         Supporting research into the causes and treatments of MND

·         Freefone Helpline & Information service for clients

·         Funding towards counselling

The IMNDA is a small organisation achieving big things in the fight against MND.

Back row (L-R) Annette Evans, Aisling Farrell CEO, Marie Reavey, Hamu Mtamiri, Andrew Brennan, Tracy Hutchin, Mary Downes. Front Row (L-R) – Roland Evans, Shau McGeever, Declan Downes.

Remember Us

Remember Us provides a unique social outlet to people with special needs and their families in the North Fingal region. Although based in Balbriggan, our members come from areas such as Santry, Clontarf, Swords, Malahide, Portmarnock, Lusk, Rush, Skerries, Balbriggan, Bettystown, Ashbourne, Drogheda etc. It is the families that are the members; this means that not only the individual with special needs benefits from the group but their parents/carers and siblings too.

One of the Nominees of ‘Remember Us is Bill Whelan in Financial Planning, this is what Remember Us means to Bill and his family

‘What changed in 2017 for our club is that we have now hired a contractor to commence work to fit out the club premises.  This has resulted with our continued fund raising, support from the local community and the big breakthrough was receiving a grant of €200,000 from the Dublin Rural Leader Programme which was announced in November.   This grant proved to us that what the club provides on a social level to families with children with special needs is recognised as a club that is based on a strong foundation of inclusion and is recognised by state bodies as a club that ‘does what it says on the tin’.  Some of you may have recently watched the Prime Time programme in December about ‘Carers in Crisis’ which really painted a true picture of what families are going through in their homes.

The main aim for Remember Us is to provide a social outlet for our members and help them build friendships for life. However the other major benefit is for our parents in providing a few hours respite every week and during holiday periods.  It’s amazing how much you look forward to a few hours  relaxing having a coffee, going for a walk or catching up on your favourite soaps!!   Knowing you have a few hours of a break to come both keeps you going and recharges the batteries.’

Speaking after our announcement last week of the Charities you chose for 2018, Bill said   ‘This nomination will make the world of difference to Remember Us as it gives us the budget to finally deliver a fully functioning club for our members.  I spoke to many of the parents from the club over the weekend and the feeling was just complete pride that the employees of Irish Life appreciated what Remember Us was all about and that you were willing to help complete our dream of having our own fully functioning club which will provide the facilities required for our members.  Once again a big thank you from everyone at Remember Us.

Our team have a couple initiatives for 2018! We have already held a book sale and have our Lip Sync Battle coming up soon.  

Let’s make this a year to remember!