As 2024 comes to an end, I have been taking some time out to remember and reflect on all that the busiest year in our history brought. What a year it was!
We kicked the year off by launching our new strategic plan – Advancing our Vision: Extending our Community of Care 2024-2028 -outlining goals and initiatives for the next five years, focusing on enhancing our care services, expanding outreach, and ensuring sustainability. This set the tone for the year with a strong vision of what is to be achieved.
As part of this our strategic ambition to provide an exemplary children’s hospice service that is both equitable and accessible saw LauraLynn receiving the most new referrals of any year to date. We appointed a new Community Assistant Director of Nursing, our Ballinasloe hub became fully operational supporting families in Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Roscommon, Leitrim parts of Clare and Tipperary in their own homes. We also completed renovations on the LauraLynn House bedroom area to deliver a more efficient and aesthetic use of the space for both the children and nursing team.
To maximise the impact of our Children’s Disability Respite Service, Hazel House, we revised the referral criteria for the service this year and began the development of the model of care. We also refurbished the accommodation and sensory play areas to enhance the experience of the growing number of children attending us.
The decongregation of our Adult Disability Residential Service, Willow View, is ongoing, with the residents, their families and the HSE working together towards a better future for the people living there. In parallel support for the people living in Willow View to increase their social and community participation is a priority for the team and the organisation. An upgrade of the Willow View kitchen was completed to create more opportunities for the residents to create meals in their own home.
There were so many highlights throughout the year as we strove to support the children, adults and families of LauraLynn on their journeys, from celebrations, to remembrances, and from fun activities to purposeful therapeutic interventions.
We got the year off to a great start with our gratitude campaign to mark Thank You Day, to demonstrate our appreciation to our families, volunteers, funders, supporters, suppliers and staff. We simply couldn’t do what we do without these amazing people and organisations’ support and it’s important to us to acknowledge it.
Celebrating is something we do with passion in LauraLynn and this year was no exception. From birthdays to special occasions and people, we celebrated them all in style. Our St. Patrick’s Day Parade in March and our Halloween Parade in October brought dress-up, music, floats and cheering crowds to the grounds of LauraLynn – it was such fun! In September we marked the 13th Birthday of the hospice with one of many birthday cakes we cut this year and we also started to plan for next year’s 100th Birthday of the service. We also celebrated a very special milestone birthday of our founder Jane McKenna, which was such an honour.
In August, we celebrated our staff and volunteers with Long Service Awards at a BBQ in the LauraLynn gardens with the help of Ambassador Garry Ringrose and Muireann O’Connell. But the celebration that everyone waits for each year – Light Up LauraLynn – surpassed all expectations, bringing even more festive joy and cheer to our families throughout the afternoon. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to our partners, Verve The Live Agency, for their incredible support, and a special thanks to our Ambassador Ray D’Arcy for his excellent work as MC, special guest Lyra, Ambassador Jenny McCarthy and the Gibson O’Gara family. We also appreciate everyone who performed and supported the event. It was truly heart-warming to reconnect, reflect, and create cherished memories together.
Our LauraLynn Oscars in September and our LauraLynn at the Abbey Theatre in February, are initiatives when children in our hospice service get to have full access to participate in in the arts becoming leading movie stars and stage performers with their families and the team in LauraLynn. These are unique, magical and poignant initiatives that we plan to continue to grow so that more children have their right to access the arts fulfilled. This year, our family support and nursing teams grew the number and range of child and family events expanding their reach, and bringing them closer to home for families across the regions.
Continuous development and research were top of the agenda this year driving our standards of care and this work was showcased nationally and internationally, including presentations at the Maruzza International Congress on CPC in Rome and the 6th All Island Children’s Palliative Care Conference, hosting a Hospice Research & Education Day and the successful launch of two bereavement training modules, one for bereaved parents and one for professionals. We also received a commendation in the HSE Excellence Awards’ Innovation & Service Delivery category for our work developing regional community services.
Raising awareness about LauraLynn never stops but we have two dedicated weeks in May (Children’s Hospice Week) and September (Palliative Care Week) where we intensify our public relations and advertising activities in a targeted way. We were thrilled this year to launch a cinema and online advertising campaign featuring to LauraLynn families, set to the beautiful Bradley Marshall hit Perfect for Me. I would like to thank all the children, families, professionals, ambassadors, supporters, volunteers and staff who have helped us in this essential work this year, sharing their stories, expertise and time.
In advance of the General Election, LauraLynn commenced a very successful grassroots campaign urging all parties and election candidates to commit to a new national policy on Palliative Care for Children. With the help of families, staff and volunteers this campaign culminated in the very first cross-party support for the inclusion of a new policy on children’s palliative care in the next Programme for Government. The new, funded policy will address changes in demographics, current levels of need, and medical and healthcare advancements and ensure better planning and delivery of children’s palliative care services in the future.
The support and commitment of our donors and supporters is a shining highlight this year. Our hospice service depends predominantly on their generosity and yet again you have chosen to give to LauraLynn through gift giving, donations to our appeals, holding community events like bake sales and golf days, taking on challenges like icy dips, marathons and 100 a-day press-ups, corporate partnerships and gifts in wills. No matter the size, these donations make an incredible difference in the lives of the families in our care. Once again, our Heroes Ball was a showstopper this year and I also had the pleasure to participate in our new 24Hour Treadmill Challenge in May alongside hundreds of others helping to keep the treadmills moving to spotlight the round the clock care families provide to their child while raising funds for our services. I’m already looking forward to the further development of Treadmill in 2025 and bringing it to Cork!
We take the trust that our families, donors and supporters place in us very seriously. Under the leadership of our dedicated Board of Directors, we operated to the Triple Lock standard of good governance again this year and were delighted to be shortlisted for a Good Governance Awards for our annual report. In addition, we maintained compliance with all required standards including: the HSE Compliance Statement, HIQA Regulations, CHKS Accreditation, Charity Regulator, Fundraising Standards and SORP Financial Reporting.
It has been wonderful to see the LauraLynn team grow this year. From advocacy to occupational health, regional fundraising to nursing and family supports the team has grown nationally attracting a wide range of skilled and committed professionals. While it is always challenging to recruit experienced paediatric nurses, we have been successful this year in employing nurses across our community, hospice and disability services. We also launched a new LauraLynn Nurse Graduate Programme which will provide an opportunity for two newly registered children’s nurses to enter into an exciting two-year graduate nurse programme.
Our volunteers also play a vital role in every department of LauraLynn and this year we are incredibly proud to celebrate Karen O’Connor, who won the Christine Buckley Volunteer of the Year Award, a tremendous achievement and testament to her outstanding contribution and dedication to LauraLynn. The invaluable support of our volunteers has an incredible impact on the lives of the children and families we support, and it is wonderful to see Karen recognised in this way.
As you can see it has been a year filled with activity but one filled with many moments of joy, celebration and achievement. But most importantly, we have reached more children and families that need us this year than ever before. As one new LauraLynn mum said recently “I didn’t realise that I needed the help so much, until I got it”. We will carry this determination to do whatever we can for families like this into the New Year and beyond.
Finally, I would like to thank you, each inspiring family, every hardworking staff member, our incredible volunteers, amazing Ambassadors, selfless fundraisers and generous supporters and donors for that you do for LauraLynn. I wish you all the happiest and healthiest 2025 imaginable.
Kerry.
