Cavan lad's birthday wish for hospital staff

 

A Cavan man has raised almost €4,000 in a little over 24-hours after seeing his birthday wish to give something back to frontline hospital staff go viral online.

As of 4pm today, April 15, close to 150 people have generously donated to Kevin Meehan's GoFundMe page, which saw the newly turned 30-year-old use his birthday bash to instead raise as much money as possible to benefit the staff at Cavan General.

Since 9am this morning, April 15, the appeal has raised almost €1,000 alone.

Kevin's appeal is double-edged, and once restrictions are lifted, he intends to use the money raised to buy hospital workers vouchers and other treats from local businesses in what is a difficult time for them too.

Kevin, who turned 30 on April 14, happened upon the idea to raise money for hospital staff after coming across a jersey signed by former Kilkenny all-star hurler Henry Shefflin whilst cleaning, and wondered how it might be transformed into something positive.

“I thought about maybe what they might need in the hospital, but this will all hopefully pass soon, and what came to me was to get something the staff can benefit from outside of work,” explains Kevin, who spoke to hospital staff about the idea.

Working locally Kevin acknowledges too the importance of supporting small businesses, and endeavoured to bring the two concerns together under one idea.

“There are a lot of small businesses who'll need the support once this is all over, so why not use it as means to support them as well, be it vouchers for coffee shops in town, or shopping vouchers, hairdressers, beauty salons, anything that would help as many people as possible, that's the aim.”

As a thank you to all who have donated, Kevin will enter each name into a raffle for a plethora of memorabilia signed and generously donated by well-known Irish sportspeople.

It includes a Killkenny jersey and hurley signed donated by Shefflin and his wife Deirdre, golfing gear from LPGA Tour rookie Leona Maguire, and a football jersey signed by Ireland and West Ham's Leanne Kiernan, as well as a signed photo from snooker's Ken Doherty.

“I'm just blown away by it, its phenomenal the response to it. I can't believe it,” says Kevin, who adds: “The way it started out was if I got a euro from everyone I was a friend with or followed on social media I'd be astounded. But there are donations coming in from people I don't even know. To see people donating to people to something so local, the fact that there's that kindness out there, its brilliant to see.”

Kevin's GoFundMe page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/staff-at-cavan-general?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet