Concert for Lucy takes fundraising efforts beyond €100k target
The ‘Concert for Lucy’, featuring Eddie and George Furey, CoinFlip and Some One’s Sons in Mullingar Arts Centre on Saturday week last, April 8, was the culmination of a fundraising campaign for Lucy Thompson, a Mullingar girl with Zellweger Syndrome. The campaign began in October with a target of €100,000 and the fundraising has now surpassed that, and stands at €103,514.
The money is being used to concert the family home to better care for Lucy’s needs, which have greatly increased in recent months as her condition deteriorates.
Gemma Purcell, who organised the Concert for Lucy, told the Westmeath Examiner on the evening: “Lucy is a local girl, she’s four years old, and at 11 months she was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called Zellweger Syndrome. In the last number of months her condition has deteriorated rapidly, her family have had to adapt their home to take care of Lucy’s needs properly.
“In October we set up Lucy’s Lifeline fundraising campaign to help with the work. We set a target of €100,000 – we’ve held several fundraising events, and it turned in a huge community effort. We have now surpassed the target and this is our last event for the fundraiser,” Gemma said.
Lucy is now fully dependent on her parents to fulfil her daily needs. A wheelchair user due to the progressive degeneration of the muscles in both her upper and lower limbs, Lucy was fitted with a PEG feeding tube last June.
The fundraising will go towards the cost of adapting the family home to meet her needs, as Lucy lives in a two-storey house where her bedroom and one shared family bathroom are upstairs. Now with the home improvements, Lucy will no longer have to be carried up and down the stairs several times a day, and instead an accessible space has been created for her, including a downstairs bedroom, wet room and accessible kitchen and living space to accommodate her medical equipment.
It means that Lucy can be cared for in a dignified manner, enabling her to integrate with and enjoy life with her family.
“For the concert we had Eddie and George Fury, CoinFlip, Some One’s Sons, and actually Daniel from Some One’s Sons played a big part in organising the concert, so a big thanks to him, and all the bands for playing tonight,” said Gemma.
“Thanks a million to everyone for buying a ticket, and to everyone who from October up until now, supported the fundraising, donated raffle prizes,
held lotto draws and online raffles – a huge thank-you everyone who took part and gave in any way. The family really appreciate it and it hasn’t gone unnoticed,” she said.