In hospital, we saw many families who, for financial reasons, are not on the same journey. We believe that everyone wants to do the best for their children but some need support.

 

Many parents are exhausted - they are sleeping on the floor or in a chair and often months at a time in the attic with no sitting room or privacy and a communal wash machine. We are very proud Dubliners and we saw people who began to hate Dublin - the loneliness, the lack of help. They felt forgotten in their communities and really lost in Dublin.

 

This is not the city that we know, and we want them to know that we do care that they are having a really tough time, and that while we can't make their child get better any quicker, we can walk part of their journey and give them a bed, a hot meal, a cup of tea and a garden.

 

When your child is in hospital and has to be transferred to Dublin, the Government gives you 10 euro a day to live on. Anyone without a medical card gets no support. This means that a lot of children - more than you would believe - do not see any one from their families for days at a time. It is hard to forget the image and sounds of children who are waiting for their parents to walk through the door and the knowledge that it was Monday and that they wouldn't be back until Friday at the earliest.

 

We could only hold one child and for everyday of his life - that was our wonderful son Hugh - but now that he is at gone, we cannot forget. We decided that the money we were prepared to spend freely on Hugh should be spent on those who shared his journey... X

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Our History