NIFHA Press Room
HELM HOUSING LAUNCHES MARATHON EFFORT FOR MARIE CURIE CANCER CARE
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Representatives from Helm Housing were joined by U105’s Maurice Jay, a member of the Marie Curie Cancer Care celebrity marathon team, and several Marie Curie nurses as they called for entries for this year’s Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon (3 May 2010).Marie Curie Cancer Care is the nominated local charity of this year’s Belfast City Marathon and is seeking to recruit some 1,500 people to run the marathon and benefit the charity by raising over £150K.
 | Pictured right are: Jackie Erskine, PA to the Chief Executive of Helm Housing, U105’s Maurice Jay, a member of the member of the Marie Curie Cancer Care celebrity marathon team, and Marie Curie nurse Mairead Carberry. |
The money will equate to 7,500 hours of high quality nursing care that Marie Curie Nurses can provide to local communities totally free of charge, giving terminally ill patients the choice of dying at home, supported by their families.
Jean Fulton, Group Chief Executive of Helm Housing, explains how the housing association is getting behind the charity to help them with their fundraising efforts:
“We recently announced our 2 year charity partnership with Marie Curie Cancer Care and are delighted to be able to help with their marathon efforts. Our staff and tenants have already raised an impressive £7,000 in the last five months and we have just signed up one full marathon runner, two relay teams, eight walkers and a significant number of staff volunteers to help out along the marathon route.
“We would like to urge as many people as possible across Northern Ireland to put their best foot forward and take up the exciting challenge for Marie Curie Cancer Care.”
Maurice Jay explains why he has signed up to take part in the marathon and raise money for Marie Curie in the process:
“The Belfast City Marathon is a great opportunity for people of all ages and abilities to come together, have some fun and raise money for charity.
“Even if you are not a practiced runner, on seeing the tireless work that the Marie Curie Nurses do, I feel that you would be compelled to dust off your trainers and take part in the Belfast Marathon. The more people we can encourage to take part in the event and raise money for the charity in the process, the greater the number of high quality nursing care hours that can be provided free of charge to terminally ill patients.”
Commenting on the charity’s delight to be chosen as one of the nominated charities for 2010, Teresa Sloan, Regional Events Manager from Marie Curie Cancer Care, said: “We’re honoured to be the official local charity for this year’s Belfast City Marathon. It’s one of the biggest fundraising events in Northern Ireland and our target is to raise in excess of £150K.
“Without these funds we cannot sustain the free service of our 200 nurses across Northern Ireland or uphold the specialist care services provided at our hospice in east Belfast.
“The event caters for individuals of all abilities; so you can take part in the fun run, walk, compete as part of a relay team or run the entire marathon route. If you can’t take part by running, I would encourage people to come together to sponsor and cheer on people running for the charity.”
The Belfast City Marathon takes place on May Day Bank Holiday Monday (3 May 2010).
The deadline for entries is Friday 26 March, with a surcharge required for entries after this date.
For more information on the 2010 Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon log on to www.belfastcitymarathon.com and to find out about running for Marie Curie Cancer Care contact 08700 340040 or visit www.mariecurie.org.uk/running.
ENDS
For all media enquiries please contact Janet McKay on 07968 817514.
Note to Editors
- Marie Curie Cancer Care is one of the UK’s largest charities, providing free, quality end-of-life care for terminally ill patients and their families. Employing more than 2,700 nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals, it expects to provide care to around 27,000 terminally ill patients in the community and in its nine hospices this year and is the largest provider of hospice beds outside the NHS.
In Northern Ireland Marie Curie Cancer Care:
- Employs more that 200 Marie Curie Nurses who work in the community to provide end of life care, totally free for patients in their own home.
- Runs the Marie Curie Hospice, Belfast with 18 inpatient beds, outpatient clinics, day therapy, family support and child bereavement services. On average, around 2,335 people visit the Marie Curie Hospice, Belfast each month. And runs similar satellite Day Therapy services in Lisburn and Downpatrick and Ards Community Centre.
- Provides services which cost over £4.5million. While NHS funding covers some of this, most is provided from generous support of thousands of individuals, membership organisations and businesses.
- Supports the choice to die at home. UK research shows around 70 per cent of people would like to die at home if they had a terminal illness, with a sizeable minority opting for hospice care. However, more that 50 percent of cancer deaths still occur in hospital, the place people say they would least like to be. Since 2004 Marie Curie Cancer Care has been campaigning for more patients to be able to make the choice to be cared for and die at home.
The Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon:
- The Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon is sponsored by Aer Lingus, Belfast City Council, Charles Hurst Renault, New Balance, Sport Northern Ireland, Tayto, Translink and Up and Running. Media partners are the Daily Mirror and U105. Official accommodation partner is Premier Inn.
- The Deep RiverRock Belfast City Marathon is organised by Belfast City Marathon Ltd., in partnership with Athletics Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, the Department for Regional Development, Newtownabbey Borough Council, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Sustrans and Translink.
Helm Housing:
- Helm Housing was formerly known as BIH Housing Association, and re-branded as Helm Housing in April 2009.
- Helm Housing is the largest housing association in Northern Ireland, with approx. 5000 tenants. Helm provides good quality social housing utilising funding from both public and private sources.
- Helm Housing’s Mission Statement is: To be the best in Housing within the island of Ireland.
- The change of name to Helm Housing reflects progress since the organisation’s foundation in 1975 to present time where the stock has grown to almost 5,000 units, catering for all types of need, including housing for families and single people as well as sheltered housing for older people.
- Helm Housing also provides a wide range of supported housing for people with special needs managed through partnerships with Health and Social Services Trusts and Voluntary Organisations including homelessness, mental health and learning disability.
- To date Helm Housing has provided support and fundraised for PIPS (Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-harm), Firomyalgia (NI), Motor Neurone Disease Association, Arthritis Care (NI) and PAPA (NI).
