‘No longer will services a child with a life-limiting illness receives be defined by where they are born in Ireland'
Turning the sod at the site of the new Sunflower Children’s Hospice in Castlebar. L-R: Paul Foxe Chairperson, Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation; Minister of Health Jennifer Carroll McNeill; Martina Jennings CEO Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation; Dara Calleary, Minister for Social Protection Rural and Community Development and the Gaeltacht. Pic: Conor McKeown
"No longer will the services a child with a life-limiting illness receives be defined by where they are born in Ireland.”
The words of Martina Jennings, CEO of Mayo Roscommon Hospice, after the sod was turned on the new Sunflower Children’s Hospice in Castlebar on Friday.
Watch Martina’s full interview with the Herald here:
Roscommon town native Paul Foxe, Chairperson of Roscommon Mayo Hospice, also spoke to the Herald about what this would mean for families in Roscommon and right across the western seaboard.
Funded by Mayo Roscommon Hospice Foundation, it will be the first children’s hospice built outside Dublin and the first new children’s hospice developed in Ireland in more than 15 years.
The facility will provide specialist paediatric palliative care for children with life-limiting conditions and support for their families across the western seaboard.
Construction is expected to begin in January 2027 and building work on the €20m project is anticipated to take approximately two years.
More than €9 million has already been raised through community and corporate fundraising, donor support and local initiatives.
The hospice is scheduled to open to patients in 2029.
