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Camlough based charity the Brain Injury Foundation have received a donation of £10,000 from a local trust, enabling them to improve the mobility of members with mobility supports including scooters and electric wheelchairs.
Chair of the Brain Injury Foundation, Bronach Rooney, was very pleased to welcome Fr Johnny Doherty, Director, Mary Corry, Chair and other members, Jim Corry, Paul and Bareena Cummins of the Love is for Life Trust to Our House, the Foundation’s Centre of Excellence in Camlough.
The Love is for Life Trust was founded some forty years ago by Fr Johnny and Frank and Aileen Dolaghan along with some other couples and worked at supporting marriage and family life across Ireland.
Fr Johnny was the main driving force behind the Trust and as he has recently reached a big birthday he and the Board of the Trust had decided it was time to wind up the Trust and to make a donation of £10,000 to The Brain Injury Foundation.
The committee of the Brain Injury Foundation made the decision to use the money to improve the mobility of as many members as possible and so far, 6 members from Newry, Camlough, Meigh, Waringstown, Portadown and Loughgall have been supplied with a variety of mobility supports including scooters, electric wheelchairs and a tricycle wheelchair.
Members of the Trust visited the Foundation to formally hand over the cheque and to meet the brain injury survivors and carers who had benefitted from the funding.
Everyone then enjoyed a delicious salad prepared and served by our Administrator, Claire Hill and Manager Olive Hawthorne. BIF committee members Alice O’Hanlon and Jeanette McDermott then presented Mary Corry and Bareena Cummins with bouquets of flowers as a gesture of thanks.
Mary Corry said “We had been aware of the Brain Injury Foundation for sometime so had no hesitation in using the last of our funds to support their work. Having now visited Our House and Biffers, the Foundation’s pub with no beer and above all, having listened to the feedback from the Brain Injury survivors and their carers about the impact the new aids are already making to their lives, I am more than convinced we made a good decision. As someone who has recently retired from health and social care I am unaware of any project similar to BIF in Northern Ireland. It is a huge credit to its committee, members, staff and volunteers.”
Olive Hawthorne, Manager of the Brain Injury Foundation, explained how the new aids were proving invaluable to both brain injury survivors and carers. All survivors, but particularly those with scooters, valued the increased independence and choices they now had while carers whose survivors have electrically operated wheelchairs emphasised that no longer having to push a wheelchair was amazing, especially because of their advancing age and challenges to their own health.
