Dear Galway First,
I must applaud the stance taken by editor Keith Lynch in Galway First last week when he criticised the local charity NCBRI for refusing to take money raised legitimately by the Dublin glamour model Ms Claire Tully. It is not as if the money they are taking is from Claire Tully’s actual modelling work. It will be the proceeds of her fundraising on an RTE TV show where the money will come from telephone calls and text messages, I assume.
I have suffered from breast cancer for several years now and I will not bore you with the details. Needless to say, barring it coming from the proceeds of crime or paedophilia, I would not care one iota where money comes from to battle this dreadful disease.
I think it was very shortsighted of the charity to refuse to take this money because of some prudish attitude. I for one, will be more reluctant to stand out in the rain and collect money knowing that the heads of the charity are turning money away because of prudishness.
You can be sure that they will take the money from high-powered glamour balls where celebrities baring a lot of cleavage will be the attraction of the day.
Claire Tully made her newfound fame from breasts and the acknowledgement of their sheer beauty — a charity like NCBRI should have been cognisant of this and not be shunning money because of some Victorian attitude. Shame on you NCBRI. Your brief to is raise funds and cure cancer, not pass judgment on those who are goodhearted enough to nominate your charity to be a beneficiary.
If you have enough money to be able to turn more away, then come out and say it. That is certainly the message that has been conveyed by this.
Yours etc,
MH,
breast cancer survivor
Galway city
(Full name and address with editor )
