Charity
Liam Mulcahy volunteers to operate the MidWest BUMBLEance service, with your support
BUMBLEance MidWest service, with the help of Liam Mulcahy, and financial support from the public, will tend to hundreds of children in the MidWest, transporting them to and from their appointments at hospitals, hospices and treatment centres, in spite of the Covid-19 crisis.
Liam Mulcahy volunteers to operate the MidWest BUMBLEance service, with your support
By I Love Limerick Correspondent Mary Doyle
BUMBLEance, the Children’s National Ambulance Service, needs your support as it launches its MidWest service, in spite of the financial hit they have taken as a result of the Covid-19 Pandemic. With plans to open their MidWest Service in June, Limerick man and Physical Therapist, Liam Mulcahy, has selflessly volunteered himself to operate this children’s ambulance service, so that children of the MidWest who are in dire need of BUMBLEance’s facilities can be tended to. But, financial support is needed for this to be possible.
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BUMBLEance was founded by Mary and Tony Heffernan in 2013, and has been the official Children’s National Ambulance Service of Ireland ever since, having made over 10,000 journeys. BUMBLEance provides safe and comfortable transportation to Ireland’s youngest patients, as they travel between homes and hospitals, hospices and treatment centres nationwide. The service maintains all the amenities of a regular ambulance, as well as all-importance extras, to ensure a safe, comfortable and entertaining journey for those children who need it.
Richard Lynch pictured in 2013 with Sophie Mulchay before her passing, and her dad Liam, brother Dion and sister Kayla. Picture: Caleb Purcell/ilovelimerick.
Mary and Tony Heffernan, who also founded The Saoirse Foundation, know all too well the implications of living with a critically-ill child, as both their children, Saoirse and Liam, sadly lost their lives to the same rare and fatal illness, Batten Disease. Since then, they founded The Saoirse Foundation which came from their Bees for Battens organisation, which operates BUMBLEance. Their charity work is truly honourable, as they support hundreds of families nationwide every year.
Limerick man, Liam Mulcahy, founded the Cycle 4 Sick Children charity cycling club in 2009, as well as the Sophie’s Journey Foundation in 2015, after his daughter, Sophie, was diagnosed with a very rare genetic condition called 1q43. During her lifetime, Sophie spent 7 months in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Crumlin, where she underwent six heart operations and was ventilated for six months in ICU, before sadly losing the battle in 2014, passing away at the age of 8.
Today, Liam is asking for the public support, as he pledges to begin operating the BUMBLEance MidWest service as soon as possible, so that critically-ill children can continue to be looked after during this pandemic.
Speaking about his decision to volunteer for BUMBLEance, Liam Mulcahy said, “This service is so vital to sick children and their parents, so it is important that it stays on the road in the MidWest. This is only something small that I can do during this time, Tony and Mary Heffernan do such amazing work with BUMBLEance and the Saoirse Foundation, but support is much needed”.
To sponsor the BUMBLEance fuel and help keep this service running, text ‘Fuel’ to 50300.
For more information on BUMBLEance, click here.
For more stories on BUMBLEance, click here.
