4 | December 14, 2013
NEWS
The Irish Post
NEWSDESK t : 020 8900 4193 | f : 020 8900 4288 w : www.irishpost.co.uk
Join us on
Facebook.com/TheIrishPost
All I want for Christmas is... company 450,000 over 65s will spend Christmas Day alone. After 10 years on his own, pensioner James Gray hopes he won’t be one of them, again, this year BY NIALL O’SULLIVAN IT’S hard for James Gray to get in the festive spirit. While families around the country get busy buying presents and making plans to celebrate the season, the Cork-native fears spending yet another Christmas alone. “This time of year is so hard if you are old and alone because it feels like everybody else around you is enjoying themselves,” he told The Irish Post. “That is just the way I feel, like I am the only one sitting here on my own.” The 85-year-old cannot even remember
the last time someone spent Christmas Day with him at his London flat. And with no immediate family to call on – and every pub and hotel in his area fully-booked on December 25 – the retired butler worries he will have to suffer that experience again this year. The Irishman is just one of almost half a million over-65s who face spending Christmas alone, according to the Age UK charity. To avoid becoming another lonely statistic in 2013, Mr Gray decided to take out newspaper adverts to find someone else who is alone who might spend Christmas day with him.
Calling all Good Samaritans VOLUNTEERS supporting lonely people in Brent have called for donations ahead of their annual Christmas lunch. Kerry woman Catherine O’Donoghue, who helps run the event, said the meal was the only way some people “know that the outside world cares about them” on Christmas Day. “A lot of the people we help are elderly and depend on community services during the week, but all those services will not be running on Christmas,” she added.
“They really need somewhere they can go to get out of the house and spend time in a jolly and festive setting.” Around a quarter of the 70 people who came to the event last year were Irish. The lunch takes place between 10am and 4pm on Christmas Day and will be held at the Sudbury Neighbourhood Centre. ■ To donate to the Sudbury and Kenton Christmas Lunch, email christmaslunch25@gmail.com
BY SIOBHÁN BREATNACH OSCAR winning actress Brenda Fricker has spoken of the hardship she witnessed as a teenager when she was one of Britain’s forgotten Irish. The actress spoke candidly about the struggles of her younger years as she was honoured with an award for her contribution to Irish Cultural Life in London. Speaking at the Ireland Fund of Great Britain’s 25th anniversary Winter Ball, Brenda spoke about her own experiences as one of the forgotten Irish – a campaign also run by the IFGB charity to help isolated and vulnerable Irish people in Britain.
LONELY: Pensioner James Gray hopes this Christmas will be different Picture Malcolm McNally
“I think there must be quite a few lonely people around and I am on my own, so it would make sense I think if someone came here for Christmas lunch,” he said. “I just had smoked salmon and prawns on my own last year and I had to put up with it. I think the last time I saw someone on Christmas Day was when I saw my accountant about 10 years ago.” Mr Gray had high hopes that his festive plan would work, but was left disappointed last week when only one person responded to his advert. His hopes suffered a further setback when the respondent later told him she would be spending Christmas Day with someone else. “I just want to find someone in time,” he said. “I am used to the loneliness, but I do not want it to be the same this year.” According to British charity Age UK,
450,000 over-65s are at risk of having nobody to spend Christmas with them. Meanwhile, one-in-six said they are not looking forward to the holiday season because it brings back too many memories of those who had passed away. Irish people in Britain are particularly at risk of having an unhappy Christmas, as they are hugely over-represented among over-65s. Caroline Abrahams, Age UK’s Director, said the number of older people suffering from loneliness was likely to be increased by cuts to social service budgets. “As we head towards Christmas this is a chilling outlook for too many older people,” she added. “What’s even more concerning is that the majority of older people facing Christmas alone are aged 80 or over, making them the most vulnerable and at risk at this time of year.”
Bar 32 bikers rise to 32 counties fundraising challenge BY FIONA AUDLEY
FAST TRACK TO FUNDRAISING: Marie Forde and Adrian Robb. INSET: Zoe Davies and Lilly McGlashan
Celebrated actress’ ‘forgotten’ early years
A LANDLORD with a passion for motorcycling has spearheaded a charitable campaign which raised more than £8,000 for good causes while tackling Ireland’s 32 counties in 32 hours. The impressive amount has been collected through the fundraising antics of Co. Antrim-native Adrian Robb, the owner of Bar 32 in Luton, and a number of his staff. The Dunloy man, who has lived in the Bedfordshire town for more than 20 years, led his team by taking on a ‘32 County Challenge’, where he embarked on a motorbike ride through Ireland’s 32 counties in 32 hours last month. Bar 32 staff member Marie Forde joined him for the ride and the pair managed to raise £6,000 in sponsorship for their chosen good causes along the way. These funds will be split evenly between two local girls who suffer life-limiting diseases.
Three-year-old Zoe Davies has a severe form of Microcephaly and needs 24 hour care, as she can’t feed orally or sit-up by herself. Adrian was spurred on to raise money to help Zoe and her family to maintain the specialist care she needs on a daily basis. For Marie Lilly McGlashan, also aged three, offered a similarly inspiring story. The youngster was just six weeks old when she was diagnosed with a rare form of neuroblastoma cancer and Lily, who has a twin sister, has been undergoing pioneering treatment in America ever since. She has responded well, but it has cost the family £850,000 to date and those fees are set to continue, so Marie was keen to raise as much cash as she could to help the family. Both families were among the guests who turned out for a special cheque presentation evening held at Bar 32 in Luton’s town Centre on Friday, November 29. There more than £8,000 in charity cash, raised by members of the Bar 32 team, was handed over to
local good causes. “I always wanted do give something back to our local community here in Luton, so raising some charity cash seemed like the way to do it.” Adrian told The Irish Post this week. “I asked the staff to get involved and everyone picked their charity and their challenge and just got on with it,” he added. “I am a motorcycling fan and an Irishman so the 32 county challenge was perfect for me, although I think people thought I was crazy to attempt it. But everyone did a great job and I’m delighted we managed to raise more than £8,000 in the short space of time we had.” And the former builder, who became a publican in 2007 and took on Bar 32 nearly two years ago, is already planning his next challenge. “Next year’s event will be Par 32 Ireland,” he told us. “I’ll attempt to par a hole at a golf course in every county in Ireland within 2 weeks.” ■ For further information visit www.bar32luton.co.uk
RECOGNITION: Irish Ambassador Dan Mulhall presenting Brenda Fricker with the IFGB ‘Contribution to Irish Cultural Life in the UK’ award Picture by Malcolm McNally “My heart missed a beat and it brought back a flood of memories...I was one of the forgotten Irish for a short time a long time ago,” she said. Brenda, who battled illness as a teenager, explained how her medical conditions left her family’s finances hanging by a thread. This was what spurred the My Left Foot actress into coming to London with her sister where she found herself, aged 17, washing floors in a London hospital. There she recalled being surrounded by a community of Irish staff, all of whom were doing menial jobs and sending money home. Brenda herself was well known for her depiction of Irish nurse Megan Roche in the BBC series Casualty for many years – a part that highlighted the role that thousands of Irish nurses played in building the NHS in Britain. “Many had become an exile rather than an emigrant,” she said. “It was like being part of a tribe.” It was only when the actress returned to Ireland that her life turned a corner and her luck changed. “It’s about putting out your hand and helping someone,” she said, adding that the Ireland Fund was the “luck” for the forgotten Irish. Also showing their support at the Landmark Hotel event were IFGB Patrons Sir Peter Sutherland and Basil Geoghegan as well as entrepreneur Sarah Newman from RTÉ’s Dragons’ Den, actor Adrian Dunbar and designer Paul Costelloe. Among the charities supported on the night were Console and the Southwark Irish Pensioners Project.