Bernadette And Her Group Will Be Fundraising For The Marie Keating Foundation
Monday, 29th May 2017
Helen Maguire passed away from breast cancer in 2002 after availing from the Marie Keating Foundation’s services. Since then, her family and friends take part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon in her memory to raise funds for the foundation.
The Marie Keating Foundation is dependent on donations to help fund its services. It has a team of nurses that travels nationwide in three Mobile Information Units to share the message of prevention and early detection to as many people as possible, free of charge. Donations also enable the charity to provide financial support to families through our Comfort Fund.
Helen also volunteered for the charity and her sister Bernadette Reddein talks to us about her.
“Helen was a wonderful person and is very much missed by us all. Her love of life was infectious and she was the backbone of the family. She welcomed everyone with an open mind and never judged people. Helen was the organiser of all our events, including our annual trips to Waterford, and if you were down in the dumps Helen would have you laughing and cheer you up (she got that trait from our mam, Rebecca). Helen had a great outlook on life and her memory still gives us immense warmth.
The Marie Keating Foundation is a wonderful charity and is helpful to so many people. Helen saw the work it did and decided to start fundraising for the charity as she was suffering herself with breast cancer. She was not one for sitting around moping. It helped her and gave her a purpose through the bad days. Somehow she always felt there were people worse off than her.
We are all involved with the Marie Keating Foundation today because of Helen. She brought us together as a family before her illness and her willingness to help others, even before her diagnosis, encouraged us to be unselfish and help where we can. Our family will keep getting involved for as long as we can, and hopefully our children will keep involvement in the foundation going.
Helen walked the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon with family and friends though her illness. The day was an event for us all, as we all got together and made it a day to enjoy. To see Helen enjoying herself gave us as a family great pride. She fought so hard and some people even wondered if she was sick at all!
We arranged fancy dress and quiz nights in aid of the Marie Keating Foundation and we still take part in the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon in Helen’s memory. We first did it about 16 years ago. About seven girls did it that first year and we have been involved over the years with fundraisers since. At one stage we had over 50 people in our group.
We really enjoy doing the Vhi Women’s Mini Marathon and even the young nieces and grand nieces, who were babies at the time of Helen’s passing in 2002, now take part. We would love to thank all our family and friends who have contributed, and still contribute to the foundation. We’d also like to thank the Marie Keating Foundation for all the work they do, and the support they give, especially for us at the time Helen’s passing. It’s a pleasure to help the foundation in whichever way we can.”
For more info on the Marie Keating Foundation go to www.mariekeating.ie
