Search icon

News

31st Oct 2018

Incredibly kind Laois woman donates €30m to five different charities in her will

Paul Moore

Irish Cancer Society

€6 million will be used to improve care for cancer patients in Ireland.

As part of her will, an incredibly kind woman from Laois has donated a total of €30m to five different charities.

The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) has identified Mrs Elizabeth O’Kelly from Stradbally, Co. Laois as the donor and the €6m figure is one of the single largest donations ever received by the ICS.

According to RTÉ, Mrs O’Kelly donated the remaining €24m to the Irish Heart Foundation, the RNLI, the Irish Society for Autism, and the Irish Kidney Association.

Mrs O’Kelly, aged 96, died in 2016 and during her life, she had extensive property interests around Ireland. She also sold Leinster Leader Ltd in 2005.

Since receiving the donation, the Irish Cancer Society released a statement which read:

“We are deeply grateful to Mrs Elizabeth O’Kelly for generously remembering people with cancer in her will. Her generosity will provide hope to so many people affected by cancer and deliver improvements in cancer care that would have been impossible otherwise.”

The statement adds that throughout her life, Mrs O’Kelly was known for displaying great kindness towards her friends and being charitable in supporting those in need.

“Mrs. O’Kelly successfully battled cancer in the 1980s,” the statement continued.

“She knew first-hand the challenges cancer patients face and the positive difference the Irish Cancer Society makes to them in their time of need, In the 1980s, when Mrs O’Kelly was diagnosed with cancer, only three out of 10 Irish cancer patients survived. Today, six out of 10 do. This is thanks in no small part to the generosity of the Irish public in supporting the Irish Cancer Society’s lifesaving research, advocacy and patient support services.”

The ICS said that it will use the funds to undertake “major improvements in cancer care in Ireland” and make the country’s “public cancer services truly world-class”.

The organisation has also identified areas such as “delayed diagnoses and inadequate access to new treatments” for improvement.

There’s no doubt that Mrs O’Kelly’s remarkable contribution will help improve the level of care for cancer patients in Ireland.

The ICS added: “The Irish Cancer Society won’t give up until Ireland’s cancer services are truly world-class and every patient has the best possible chance of surviving and thriving after a cancer diagnosis. We won’t settle for anything less and we know Mrs O’Kelly would not want us to. As a charity, we receive only 2% of our income from the State. With the number of cancer patients at an all-time high, we have been experiencing unprecedented requests for help from cancer patients and their families in recent years.”

Mrs O’Kelly’s donation will be used as the seed for this investment and it will enable the ICS  “to deliver the kind of transformational change that would have been impossible otherwise”.

“On behalf of people affected by cancer all across Ireland, our supporters and volunteers, we are deeply grateful to her for making this possible,” the statement concluded.

An incredible act of kindness.

LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ with Conor Sketches | Tiger Woods loves Ger Loughnane and cosplaying as Charles LeClerc