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By Michelle Crean

One Firies lady is on a mission to raise as much funding as possible for 'Comfort for Chemo Kerry' to help those going through treatment to have more comfort.

Gina Herlihy, who normally organises a Little Women's Christmas event, has had to take her charity work online due to this year's restrictions.

So far, over €2,500 has been raised of the €1,000 target set - and she's hoping for even more support.

Gina began fundraising two years ago for Comfort for Chemo Kerry as she lost both parents to cancer.

"I was 15-years-old when my mother died of breast cancer and she travelled up and down to Cork for her treatment," she explained.

"My father was 62 but never had treatment. I know how much a new chemotherapy unit will mean to people who are in need of chemotherapy services in Kerry."

She held two fundraising events over the past two years in the village of Firies and a total of €10,100 was raised.

"The community spirit from the people of Firies and beyond was always amazing. Businesses and locals again this year are very generous. The charity is on a mission to raise €5m to build a new state-of-the-art separate unit on the grounds of UHK for the people of Kerry and surrounding areas who are in need of chemotherapy services and I'm hoping that this fundraising raffle will generate much needed funds to help them along. Due to COVID I could not host the same event this year but wanted to still raise funds so I reached out to businesses for prizes and they and local people were only too delighted to donate."

This fundraiser is all about this amazing charity, she added.
"I'm extremely proud to be a fundraiser for them and I'm also very grateful to the people of Firies and Kerry and beyond for their continued support. Everyone has said how much they will miss the women’s night this year so I'm hoping that people will dress up in their Christmas jumpers and tune in live to the raffle on Facebook and they can take photos and send them in to me. I'll do a memory gallery afterwards and maybe we can show some photos of them and their excitement if they win."

To donate and help the cause search GoFundMe: Christmas Raffle in aid of Comfort For Chemo Kerry.