Donation boosts for Breathe Easy Causeway

At the October meeting of Breathe Easy Causeway donations totalling over £1,000 were presented to group chairperson, Mrs Marie Hegarty.

Breathe Easy member, Mrs Rhoda Burnett, handed over a cheque for £720, the money raised by her daughter Roberta, during her Lady President’s Day at Ormeau Golf Club in Belfast.

The St Vincent de Paul Society, Kilrea, donated £300; and Mrs Mabel Glass, of Halton England, a friend of Mrs Nessie Blair, The Northern Ireland British Lung Foundation Development Officer, gave £50 in lieu of her Christmas card circulation this year.

The St Vincent de Paul funding was the result of a sponsored walk along Portstewart Strand by the society’s walking group “Get Up and Go”, under the leadership of Olive McGuigan.

The new president of Breathe Easy Causeway, Dr Mark Rollins, Consultant Paediatrician, Northern Health Trust, emphasised the continuing need for fund-fundraising to keep up the battle against respiratory illness.

In his address, “The Wheezy Child”, Dr Rollins highlighted what was being done to improve lung health in children.

He told members that although asthma among children was high - over one million cases in the United Kingdom and costing £237,000,000 to treat - there was evidence it was declining.

He added, “We must double our efforts to maximise well established protocols within the Health Service to insure that this trend continues”

Dr Rollins said he was very much in support of the BLF campaign to ban smoking in cars when children were present.

Judith Lavery, the local Crime Prevention Office advised on the best methods of home security, pointing out that a burglary occurs ever 32 seconds somewhere in the United kingdom.

She said most burglars were opportunists, and house holders need to insure that their doors and windows were locked properly.

“In Northern Ireland there were 7,000 house break-ins last year, although in the Coleraine area the good news is that house burglaries were down by 40%.

During the meeting there was a special birthday celebration for group member, Mrs Bernie Reid who is now in good health eight years after a successful heart and lung transplant.