THE Palliative Care Unit in Kerry Genaral Hospital, received a massive boost, when a €20,000 cheque from a fundraiser was handed over to them on Monday.

The chief organiser behind the Kerry Stars Lovely Legs Compeition in aid of the Unit was Andrea O’Donoghue from Blennerville, who recently lost her father, Tony, to cancer.

“What the staff do in the Palliative Care unit goes above and beyond what you would think, they don’t get the recognition they should, but they don’t look for it either, so I wanted to give something back,” said Andrea O’Donoghue.

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The money raised will go towards a new purpose built 15 bed in patient unit. Kerry Hospice needs to raise in excess of €5 million for this project.

The fundraising night was attended by Kerry players past and present, such as Ogie Moran, Bomber Liston and Marc O’Se who all had their legs waxed in aid of the  great cause. MC for the night was none other than RTE’s, Miriam O’Callaghan.

“The night was fantastic, I think we sold 700 tickets in the end,” said Andrea O’Donoghue.

“We didn’t expect to raise this amount at all, we were hoping for around €10,000” said Andrea.

A charity auction was held during the fundraiser , where the the bids were for a signed jockeys pants signed by legends of the sport. That went for €2,00o and signed Kerry and Kilkenny jerseys  both fetched €600.

Staff in the Paliative Care Unit, based at the back of Kerry General Hospital are ‘overwhelmed’ with the sum of money which was raised.

“We’re extremely grateful to the O’Donoghue family and to all their friends for the huge effort they made,” said Nurse Manager of the Palliative Care Unit,  Marie O’Connell.

“Every cent that is raised for Palliative Care goes into the needs of the patients. It takes a lot organisation, thought and effort to raise that amount of money and it’s greatly appreciated,” said Marie.