Mayo Senator Chambers has confirmed that the Daisy Lodge Cancer Support project in Cong, County Mayo, can now officially go ahead, following the allocation of government funding to the development.
On Tuesday last (June 20 ), Senator Chamber stated: "I am delighted to be able to announce €7.5m in funding for Daisy Lodge through the Department of Health and The Shared Island Unit. The funding will be used to construct Daisy Lodge, a state of the art therapeutic short break centre for children with cancer and their families in Cong, County Mayo.
"Cancer Fund for Children have been working for a number of years to open a second facility here in the republic. Mayo County Council planning office and council management did a huge amount of work in getting planning in place and assisting the project coming to Mayo. Last year I met with the CEO of Cancer Fund for Children, Phil Alexander and we immediately began working on securing the funding to build the facility. We felt it had a good chance of being successful in an application to The Shared Island Unit and I brought the project to the then Taoiseach Micheál Martin and the Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly. The Department of Health in particular have been fantastic and immediately championed the project. It is fair to say that when we explained what the project was all about and what it would do for children and their families at the most distressing time in their lives, there was huge support across the board to make this happen."
Cancer Fund for Children’s CEO Phil Alexander said, “I would like to thank Senator Lisa Chambers for championing Cancer Fund for Children and advocating for a therapeutic short break centre based in the West to support children diagnosed with cancer across the island of Ireland. Thanks to Lisa’s commitment to our cause, we will be able to deliver on our mission - to help ensure that no child aged 0-24 has to face cancer alone. As we can only provide therapeutic short breaks to one in every seven families across the island, a second Daisy Lodge in Cong Co. Mayo will be transformational in helping to ensure every family impacted by childhood cancer can access our support. Construction will commence in January 2024 and we are truly grateful to the Department of Health and the Shared Island Fund Unit for helping make this possible.“
Senator Chambers added: "Cancer Fund for Children are already operating a facility in County Down where children and their families from the republic have been going for many years. Such is the demand for this incredible service there was a clear need to open a second facility on the island and Cong was chosen as the perfect place to do this. Rory McIlroy purchased the site in Cong for the charity and Rory Best just a few weeks ago walked from Dublin to Cong to turn the first sod and raised much-needed funds along the way. The local elected members have all been hugely supportive and I have worked closely with my colleague Councillor Damien Ryan from the local authority aspect.
"The cabinet decision to approve €7.5m in funding, €5m from The Department of Health and €2.5m from The Shared Island Unit, is a major boost for Daisy Lodge and means construction can proceed. The facility will soon open its doors to the many children and families that will need the service. We can be very proud that our county will be home to this very special and unique facility. I want to pay tribute to Phil Alexander and the team at Cancer Fund for Children, in particular Mary McHugh Murphy, their Connacht Regional Fundraiser, for the massive fundraising effort and work in getting this project to where it is. The support and generosity of so many people over the past few years has been incredible."
