THE wonderful new Palliative Care Unit was officially opened last Friday at University Hospital Kerry and among its many great facilities is a new space for younger people.
‘Donal’s Den’ is a room funded by the Donal Walsh ‘LiveLife’ Foundation and Fionnbar and Elma Walsh were at the unit to see the room, which fulfilled a request Donal had for the new unit.
“When Donal was in palliative care, there were no facilities for teenagers, even when he went to Marymount in Cork,” said Elma.
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“The one thing that he asked was that there would be teenage facilities brought into the new hospice here in Tralee. So the Foundation has donated €80,000 to help the Hospice and to include a teenage facility,” she said.
The room has beanbags, a large TV and there are more facilities to go in there soon.
“If there is a teenage patient here they could bring their friends down there to hangout and have a pizza or something,” said Elma.
Elma showed former Rose of Tralee, Elysha Brennan, herself a former Cancer sufferer, around the room on Friday and she was impressed with Donal’s Den and the unit as a whole.
That’s lovely. My own mum died before a unit at all and the difference now is unreal.