Who is Marykate Tiernan ?
To a lot of you the name will mean nothing, but, by the end of this article you will feel like you want to know this brave little girl and want to help in whatever way you can.
The Bubblegum Club became aware of Mary – Kate Tiernan after reading the front page article in the Drogheda Leader on February 15th.
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An audio recording from LMFM about Marykate.
Click on the link below and it will play with your media player.
Bubblegum Club founder Peter Harris talks to LMFM about Marykate.
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The Irish Times on-line Monday 12th March.
Charity suffers 80% fall-off in Donations
ELAINE KEOGH
A CHARITY’S founder has said it has been hit with nearly an 80 per cent drop in donations because of the recession.
Peter Harris, founder of the Bubblegum Club, said “it is those who are less well-off who continue to give the most”.
The charity which he founded in 1994 helps children with life-threatening illness by helping to make their dreams come true. It arranges “extraordinary outings for extraordinary children”, and has helped thousands of children and their families.
During the boom years of the Celtic Tiger it benefited from the generosity of property developers and businesspeople who would donate the use of their helicopters and contribute to annual fundraising events such as a charity lunch which helped raise tens of thousands of euro.
The current shortfall has meant what were once annual events for very sick and sometimes terminally ill children have not gone ahead. “The annual ski trip has not taken place for four years because it costs €60,000. We used to bring 60 children for three days to Alton Towers in England, and that has not happened either,” he explained. Mr Harris said at its height the charity had taken in about €400,000 a year in financial donations, and also had the benefit of the generosity of those who could donate services and products.
Things had changed with the recession, and he estimated the fall in financial donations to be 79 per cent – placing its income now in the region of €80,000. He was speaking in Louth at a major street party which the club arranged, with strong community support, for Marykate Tiernan (7), from Clogherhead, who is terminally ill with leukaemia.
Mr Harris said the club would continue to run, promising: “We are not going away but we are creating new ways of fundraising.” It is opening its first charity shop in Dún Laoghaire later this month.
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There is also an article in The Irish Star page 18 for Monday the 12th March.