“Well when COVID 19 hit our shores here in Ireland in March of this year, I was sure that it was going to bring an end to the Marie Keating Foundation, as we rely so heavily on fundraising events. Just like that, 21 years of heartfelt work done by such a small but mighty team, supporting people and their families on a cancer journey across Ireland, just gone.

I prayed to God for acceptance of whatever was going to happen. We as a family had made a promise to do all we could to prevent families going through what we went through loosing our beautiful mother, Marie at just 51 years of age, and now we felt helpless.  But thanks to the wonderful people of Ireland and of course the amazing team at the Foundation, we are still here and continuing to support cancer patients and their families, now more than we ever have before.

I am so grateful for and proud of the team at the Marie Keating Foundation. Each and every one of them have put their heart and soul into their work and have made sure that anybody needing our help received it, during this challenging time.  Be it by way of information, our cancer prevention services or survivorship support, however we can be there for people, we are.

Fundraising in 2020 has been challenging to say the least.  In the past 20 years we have relied almost totally on our fundraising events, our corporate partners, and the generosity of public donations to help us to continue our vital cancer awareness and support services, COVID-19 devastated all o this, but I am proud to say, that the team at MKF rallied quickly and adapted, we are now ending 2020 in a much more positive position than I could have imagined back in March.

Some highlights include; our online COVID-19 appeal, which allowed our services to adapt to online in those early weeks to ensure that we were there for people and their families on a cancer journey, who needed our support at a time of great anxiety and uncertainty.  The generosity of our corporate partners who have all without fail helped us through this difficult year and who have been generous to a fault.

Then there was the Concert4Cancer, which aired on Virgin Media One in August.  We were so blown away by the goodwill and generosity we received from so many of you at that event. The concert would never have happened if it wasn’t for the positive force that is Colette Kearney and the Mount Sion Choir. The concert committee of Colette, John Wall, Joyce O’Carroll, Willian Gallagher and Robert Browne were all instrumental in taking the idea of a live stream fundraiser and helping us to grow it into what the concert became – we cannot thank you enough. To all the musicians who so generously gave of their time and talent, especially in a time when so many of them needed help, I have to say a huge thank you, it would not have been the spectacle it was without your amazing performances. To everyone behind the scenes, everyone at 10Central, the crew and our Director Maurice Linnane, your patience and professionalism was second to none. To Virgin Media One for supporting us and airing the concert, and most of all for taking a leap of faith on a proposal and an idea – thank you. But our greatest thank you has to go to each and every person who went online or picked up the phone and made a donation, please know that every cent we received on the night is making a huge difference and has allowed us to restore services and bring our full nursing team back. Our services are facing a huge increase in demand so your generosity on the night is allowing us to meet that demand and continue our mission and make cancer less frightening by enlightening and work towards a world free from the fear of cancer.

I have tears in my eyes sitting here writing this as I am humbled by what our small team at MKF have achieved and how you have helped us to achieve this, I really am so grateful.”

God bless

Linda Keating