Sheridan’s Pharmacy Roselawn recently held their annual community fundraising event in aid of an important local charity, A Little Lifetime Foundation. Des Sheridan is a pharmacist and the proprietor of the store.
“With this fundraiser we are giving back to the community and the particular charity we selected provides a free counselling service to bereaved parents whose child has passed away during pregnancy, childbirth or shortly after birth. People around here are very generous so once you explain to them what the charity is and why it is important they are very willing to give. There is a great community spirit around here. That’s what it’s all about: giving a personal service to the customers, being part of the community, and giving back to the community.”
On offer that day were cakes for sale, goody bags, free hand massages and free blood pressure checks. Local traders, suppliers and residents from the area donated items for raffle prizes and the final sum raised was an impressive €3250.
Jessica Melia is the manager of Sheridan’s Pharmacy. “The day was a massive success. A huge thank you to all our customers for their continued support with these fundraising days and also a huge thank you to the team in A Little Lifetime for coming in on our special day and supporting us in our quest to spread awareness for the support that is out there for bereaved parents.”
Melia explained to Irish Pharmacy News why the team plan these types of events.
“We run one big charity event every year. The main thing we aim for with these events is to create awareness for the work the particular charity does for bereaved parents in the wider community. The second thing is to raise funds to help them to keep doing this important work and the third thing and how it works from our point of view is that we get to reach people who maybe before were not aware of us. Last year we held the fundraiser in aid of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin and we did notice an increase in new scripts afterwards because we were outside the store having tea and coffee with people we wouldn’t necessarily know or recognise and we were also providing free blood pressure checks so that is another way we can give back to the community while also adding value to the business.”
Mary McGrath is a coordinator of the charity, which is based in Blanchardstown. McGrath told IPN that she was “amazed” by the amount of money raised by the team at Sheridan’s. “It’s an incredible amount of money and we are extremely grateful. What also means a lot to us is the fact that the event raised awareness and that is really important for a small charity like ours. There are a lot of young families living in Blanchardstown so we want people who are grieving the loss of a child, at any stage of pregnancy or during or after birth, to know that we are here and we are open and we want to help. We are just so pleased to have been selected and very grateful to Des and to Jessica and to the whole team.”
More information on the charity and the services it provides, which includes one-to-one counselling, can be found by visiting www.alittlelifetime.ie.
