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Funding from the National Lottery in 2023 allowed Recovery Haven Kerry to continue offering free hydrotherapy classes for its clients.
HYDROTHERAPY classes are providing cancer patients in Kerry and surrounding counties with an outlet to help them claim back a fun and active life.
Recovery Haven Kerry offers a safe place for cancer patients, their families and carers to access free emotional and psychological support and information through phone support, counselling, complementary therapies, courses, classes and online group activities.
Following funding from the National Lottery in 2023, it was able to continue offering free hydrotherapy classes for its clients. The classes focus on gentle exercises to improve fitness, mobility and mental health as well as provide pain relief.
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“We were already providing a lot of free classes – such as yoga and Pilates – and were interested in branching out into other therapies,” says Marisa Reidy of Recovery Haven Kerry.
“We approached Kerry Sports Academy (at the Munster Technological University) about it and they loved the idea. The National Lottery funding in 2023 allowed us to provide five eight-week slots and it was a huge success. As soon as we launched it, people jumped at the chance to do it and some of the feedback has been incredible.”
Adults of all ages on their cancer journey participated in the classes. One said it gave him “the confidence to get back to a more normal, active life”.
Another said it was the best part of her week. “It put me in an amazing mental state. It was the best part of my week – the fun, the exercises, the friendship and the feeling of normality.”
The centre is continuing with the hydrotherapy classes and between 12 – 14 people are benefiting from them each week.
Recovery Haven Kerry also received Good Causes funding in 2019 and the centre was also a regional winner at the National Lottery Good Causes Awards in 2022.
In 2019 additional funding was used to provide 100 free one-to-one counselling for adults and young people at the centre during 2020.
These sessions were vital at a time when the country faced rigid Covid19 restrictions which impacted hugely on vulnerable cancer patients and their families leading to an increase in demand for counselling.
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