The Bantry Bay Lions Club presented another batch of 100 “Cuddly Lions” to the Ambulance Services group in Bantry on March 7.
These Cuddly Lions will be given to children who are transported to hospital in an ambulance to help ease their stress. This is the twelfth year of this programme which has continued due to the very generous sponsorship of €500 by Diarmuid Hurley at Hurley’s Garage in Bantry. Much appreciation must also go to Tanja and Mike Goodall of Stowaway Crafts & Toys who supplied the toy lions at a discount.
Pictured presenting the cuddly lions are (from left to right) Eileen Dunning, Lions Francis Greaves and Mike Dunning and Martin Murray, Paramedic Supervisor. This is one of many projects the Bantry Bay Lions are involved in to benefit the community and they would like to say a huge thank you to everyone for keeping this important programme alive.
The Bantry Bay Lions Club introduced their Message in a Bottle project in 2012 in front of an invited audience of over 30 community and voluntary groups. The idea is a simple way of encouraging people to store their personal information and medical details on a standard form, and place it in a common location – the fridge. Green Cross stickers are then placed on the front and back doors of the house, and on the outside of the fridge. In the event of a medical emergency, the emergency services will then be aware that the personal details of the patient are stored in the fridge. This scheme benefits the elderly, those who live alone, anyone who is suffering from a long-term illness, and those with disabilities. The form provides valuable information if the patient has any allergies to medicines, or if the patient has a specific medical condition which requires attention. In this way, the information stored on the form will aid the emergency services to provide the proper treatment for the patient.
This article has been released to again inform the general public of their availability at the present time. These bottles are free and are located at Dr Kingston’s Bantry Bay Medical Centre waiting room, Dr Paul O’Sullivan’s Bantry Marino Medical Centre, Dr Joan Lynch’s surgery, Dr Aisling Morris’s Glengarriff Medical Centre and Glengarriff Pharmacy. The Bantry Bay Lions Club would like to express its thanks to Rowa Pharmaceuticals, who have sponsored and supported the project from its inception.
The Bantry Bay Lions Club contributed €200 to the Lions District fund which was established to help those affected by storm Eowyn.
John Dervan, Club Publicity Officer