Poetry book to be launched to help fund a great cause
Charlene Egan has just written a book of poetry whose proceeds will go towards a fundraising campaign for Bagenalstown woman, Yvonne Geoghegan
POET Charlene Egan is about to launch a book of freshly-penned poems and musings called and will donate all the profits from its sale to a great cause.
Charlene will raise vital funds for Bagenalstown woman Yvonne Geoghegan, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 25.
Yvonne is trying to raise €80,000 to receive a Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT) treatment in Mexico, which she believes is her “only hope” of living a somewhat normal life.
A bout of attacks means she has permanently lost vision in her right eye, decreased vision in her left eye, experiences weakness in her right leg, and has extreme fatigue.
The aim of HSCT is to “reboot” the immune system using a non-radiation chemotherapy medical treatment, to stop it from attacking its own body. It isn't currently available to patients in Ireland due to funding issues.
The County Carlow community has quickly rallied around Yvonne and so far, have raised around €30,000 from a pop-up shop, cake sales, bingo night and music event.
More money is needed however, to cover the treatment, travel, wigs, insurance, tests and basic home adaptions needed for the treatment to be successful.
When Charlene heard about Yvonne’s plight she had “real empathy” for what she was going through as she has three auto-immune conditions herself.
When she heard about the fundraising campaign, she realised a way she had a way of making some money for her, by publishing a book of her writings.
“I saw the book in my head! It was a strange thing, it happened very quickly,” said Yvonne. “I have always dabbled on and off with writing.”
As luck would have it, at a lottery fundraiser for Yvonne where she had a 2% chance of winning, Charlene came away with a prize that enabled her to pay for 300 books to be published. The family are “all so grateful” for the support she is providing.
“All I wanted to do is raise enough money to make a difference,” said Charlene.
Charlene is from Athy and so is hosting the launch of her book in the local library. All are welcome to the launch on Tuesday 18 November at 6pm which will include a poetry reading by Charlene and a raffle. The book will be on sale in Winkles newsagents, Athy for €10.
