Rasharkin pharmacy prepares for charity coffee morning

Pauline Quigg from the pharmacy said: “Unfortunately, every family is touched in some way by cancer and working in the pharmacy, the staff are well aware of this.

“We were chatting about trying to raise some money for a cancer charity and decided to organise a coffee morning and give the proceeds to Marie Curie Cancer Care.”

Pauline’s colleague, Laura Bellingham said: “All the staff in Rasharkin and Dunloy have put in a great effort and have been busy swapping recipes! It will be a great chance for people to come, have a cup of tea or coffee and a scone, or perhaps something sweeter and most of all, to have a bit of a chat. We look forward to welcoming everyone on Saturday.”

Marie Curie Cancer Care works in mainly two ways across Northern Ireland. The first is through the Marie Curie Hospice in Belfast, which is a specialist in-patient unit caring for those who are ill with terminal cancer and other life limiting illnesses and the second is the Marie Curie Nursing Service.

Another way in which Marie Curie Cancer Care has started to work within the local community is in conjunction with the out of hours Dalriada service providing a registered nurse each night to respond to patients needs.

This is where a Marie Curie Nurse starts a shift at 10pm but is based in Dalriada in Ballymena. If a patient needs care or support during the night, such as a change in medication the nurse will then go directly to the patient’s home and ensure that the patient is comfortable before leaving. This means that the nurse can make many patient visits during the night and get to those that may not necessarily need the full overnight shift.

So why not come along to the coffee morning in Kennedy’s Pharmacy this Saturday and help Marie Curie Cancer Care?