Castlebar - County Mayo - Heart Children Ireland

From Castlebar - County Mayo -

Community Groups
Heart Children Ireland
14, Dec 2008 - 11:29

Homebase Castlebar are having a festive weekend from Fri 12th to Sun 14th Dec. Santa arriving @ Homebase @ 3pm on Friday. There will be a brass band playing in front of the store on Friday and Santa based in the foyer all weekend. Lots of activities over the weekend including raffles. Homebase will be raising monies for the charity Heart Children Ireland. If there are any volunteers / collectors available in Castlebar over the weekend come along to Homebase Castlebar and help raise much needed funds for Heart Children Ireland. Have a great Christmas and best wishes for 209! See below for more information about Heart Childre Ireland and the nature of congenital heart defects.

Information about Heart Children Ireland

Heart Children Ireland is a support group for parents and families of children with a Congenital Heart Disorder. CHD is the most common of all birth defects affecting one in every one hundred children born at present. About half of all babies born with CHD will require heart operations and at present, over 400 open-heart operations are performed annually on children from one day old to teenagers.

We are a nationwide organisation with over 800 member families. We were founded in 1990 and are a registered charity. We are a completely voluntary group and receive no government funding. We depend entirely on our own fundraising and donations from individual and business. Over the last 17 years we have raised over €1m euro for the cardiac unit in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin.

We offer support to our members in many ways:

1. We offer support through a shared understanding and awareness of the problems and needs that a child with CHD can bring.
2. We produce a quarterly magazine Heartstrings. This keeps our members updated on current events and also provides a forum for parents to express their views.
3. We provide a professional counseling service free to our members and their families.
4. We launched a support group for our teenagers in March 2003. This group is funded and supported by us and is called Chairde Mo Chroi
5. We are currently setting up a support service for our bereaved members.
6. We provide a small grant to families traveling abroad for surgery.
7. Social events where parents can meet and talk.
8. We are currently funding a dedicated speech and language therapist for the Cardiac Unit at Our Lady’s in Crumlin.

We provide advocacy services to advance the particular needs of our children and their families within the hospital setting and also within the wider social arena.

How can you help us?

1. By organizing fundraising events in the workplace
2. Through direct donations to Heart Children Ireland
3. Help to promote awareness of CHD (Display our flyers, publish our group in company magazines etc.)
4. Fund one or more issues of our magazines Heartstrings
5. Become a sponsor/patron of Heart Children Ireland
6. Provide funding for specific events and/or equipment

What Are Congenital Heart Defects?

Congenital (kon-JEN-i-tal) heart defects are problems with the heart’s structure that are present at birth. These defects can involve the interior walls of the heart, valves inside the heart, or the arteries and veins that carry blood to the heart or out to the body. Congenital heart defects change the normal flow of blood through the heart.

There are many different types of congenital heart defects. They range from simple defects with no symptoms to complex defects with severe, life-threatening symptoms.

Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, affecting 8 of every 1,000 newborns. Each year, more than 35,000 babies in the United States are born with congenital heart defects. Most of these defects are simple conditions that are easily fixed or need no treatment.

A small number of babies are born with complex congenital heart defects that need special medical attention soon after birth. Over the past few decades, the diagnosis and treatment of these complex defects has greatly improved.

As a result, almost all children with complex heart defects grow to adulthood and can live active, productive lives because their heart defects have been effectively treated.

Most people with complex heart defects continue to need special heart care throughout their lives. They may need to pay special attention to certain issues that their condition could affect, such as health insurance, employment, pregnancy and contraception, and preventing infection during routine health procedures. Today in the United States, about 1 million adults are living with congenital heart defects.