By Mark McGoldrick

 

Six players from the Erne Gaels club have signed up to a ‘Shave or Dye’ challenge, with each man obliged to either shave or dye their hair, with all proceeds raised in aid of the Intensive Care Unit in the South West Acute Hospital.

Gareth Deery is one of the six men taking part in this initiative and he admits that whenever they saw an online appeal from the hospital looking for more staff to help deal with the pressure, they felt that they needed to do something effective that could be of benefit in this time of crisis.

“It all started when we saw a post on Facebook about the SWAH being under severe pressure. With this being the third lockdown, and possibly not the last, we came together and decided to try and raise funds for the NHS. We came to an agreement that a ‘Shave or Dye’ would be a good way of raising money as we could all do it at home and be obliged to the Covid-19 regulations.”

“We believe in times like this that everyone should get together and try and help those who most need it. It was clear that in the middle of this Pandemic, that all ICU’s would be under pressure as Covid cases sadly got higher. After we saw an urgent appeal for staff from the SWAH, it was clear that some help was needed. We felt that we needed to try and do something to help.”

At the time of going to press, the Erne Gaels men have raised a whopping total of £2,875 for the SWAH, and Gareth believes the generosity of people who donated just goes to show how our community pulls together in our greatest hour of need.

“We started off by setting a goal of ?500. We thought by achieving this that it would help in some way. We were blown away by the generosity of people when we reached that within the first few hours. We didn’t expect to raise so much money and we’re so thankful to have over 100 people kindly donate.” 

“To have raised over three times as much as we expected just shows that people are coming together in these difficult times. We hope that all the money we have raised will go a long way and will help in any way possible. All of this wouldn’t be possible without people donating so we’re extremely thankful to all who has donated.”

If you would like to donate to Gareth and his fellow Belleek men, you can donate online by either visiting the Go Fund Me website or by following the link on their own Facebook Pages.