FUNDRAISER: Siobhan Reen, Specialist Children’s Liaison Nurse for Kerry is urging people to go 'Up the Hill for Jack and Jill' for a socially-distanced challenge in October.

EXCLUSIVE

By Sean Moriarty

A Killarney nurse is behind a socially distanced fundraiser to help vulnerable Kerry children.

'Up the Hill for Jack and Jill' is an annual fundraiser for the nationwide home nursing charity that benefits 13 children in Kerry, including at least one Killarney family.

To comply with crowd gathering rules there are no big hill events being organised but, instead, throughout the month of October participants can keep their challenge small, safe and local.

Killarney-based Siobhan Reen is the Jack and Jill Foundation Specialist Children’s Liaison Nurse for Kerry.

“Every day our families have their own hill to climb at home. With ‘Up the Hill for Jack and Jill’, we are asking people to physically climb a hill in solidarity with those who can’t,” she said. "It’s about neighbour helping neighbour, friend helping friend and that community support really means so much to our families and our nurses.”

The fundraiser is part of an SOS appeal underway to fill a €200,000 funding gap and to extend the age range of children supported by the charity from five to six years of age. Jack and Jill’s frontline home nursing care and end-of-life care is more important than ever, given the lack of respite options in the community for the extra-special children it supports.

People can register at www.jackandjill.ie for €16 which funds one hour of home nursing care and end-of-life care. No sponsorship card is required.