Donegal Dublin Business Network (DDBN) has secured over €20,000 in funding to assist Letterkenny University Hospital.
And the group say they are determined to raise more.
A recent initiative by the business network in Dublin has, within the space of one week, collected in excess of €20,000 for Letterkenny University Hospital.
The funds will be used to assist the hospital with much-needed resources for their staff and patients arising out of the Covid-19 crisis.
Secretary of the Donegal Dublin Business Network (DDBN), Sally Anne Sherry, explained from her home in Dublin how the initiative came about.
“Like so many, we are humbled by the efforts of those on the healthcare frontline and as a committee we were thinking about how we could assist the efforts of those back home.
“We have over 300 members in our business network who are all from or have a strong connection to Donegal and are in business in the greater Dublin Area. A lot of us would usually have been in Donegal for Easter so our hearts are at home, but we are in Dublin”.
“Having read about the nationwide shortage of PPE (personal protective equipment) and noticing online the great local efforts by groups such as the Glenswilly GAA club to collect PPE for LUH, we asked our members if they had access to PPE that we could send to LUH.
“We gathered a small amount of PPE at the start of last week and could source thousands of face masks, however they were not suitable for use in a clinical hospital setting. Through engagement with LUH, they asked us to concentrate our initial efforts in securing high-quality, appropriately sized scrubs for staff at LUH and suggested that we work directly with a local company called Moville Clothing to manufacture and deliver them.
“We spoke to Moville Clothing who agreed to manufacture the scrubs at cost price, which is very commendable of them. Now that we had a simple request of our members, to sponsor a set of scrubs for €40, the funds began to flow. To date, we have ordered 100 sets of scrubs’.
Amazingly within a couple of days, more than €20,000 was committed to the group’s initiative.
This includes donations from individual members who have sponsored one or more sets of scrubs, a number of larger, individual donations from members who are in business in Dublin and a generous commitment from our friends in the Donegal Association Dublin.
The group said they have also received donations from as far afield as New York and Dubai as the story resonated with friends and family abroad.
Sally Anne added “As well as funding high-quality scrubs for staff, the success of the initiative has allowed us to explore other opportunities to assist LUH. We are currently working on the delivery of 20 communication devices with specialised infection control cases for the hospital wards to enable enhanced communication between staff, patients and their loved ones – particularly during patient isolation.
“Communication devices like iPads are working well in some other hospitals. We will continue to work with LUH to identify what we can do to help staff and patients at this difficult time.”
Further details can be found on the Network’s website www.ddbn.ie
The DDBN is happy to hear from anyone who would like to contribute to the initiative and can be contacted on donegaldublinbusinessnetwork@gmail.com
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