As Christmas approaches, we would like to send you our heartfelt thanks for kindly supporting the Marie Keating Foundation throughout 2017 whether you came to an event, made a donation, supported a campaign or visited one of our mobile units.

We would like to share with you a few highlights of what the Marie Keating Foundation achieved this year. A full overview and the impact of our work can be downloaded in our recent Annual Report.

• Our mobile units and nurses visited over 25,470 people in over 390 locations, providing free information on cancer prevention and early detection.
• Our Comfort Fund gave financial support to 531 people undergoing cancer treatment, to help them and their families at this difficult time in their lives.
• Over 240 cancer survivors attended our Survive & Thrive workshop programmes in Ennis, Tipperary and Dublin.
• 1,000’s of people engaged with our award-winning cancer awareness campaigns on breast; cervical; lung; prostate; skin cancer and men’s health in locations nationwide.

As we don’t receive any government funding, all of this work was supported financially through generous corporate support, kind donations and the efforts of wonderful volunteers as well as by our own fundraising team. The Foundation has achieved what is called a Triple Lock of good Governance for the Charity Sector, which means that it is in full compliance with the Governance Code for the Voluntary and Charity Sector, the Fundraising Guiding Principles and the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) for its accounts. The Foundation is very proud that in 2016, 84% of our total income was spent directly on our services. The services this charity is providing are crucial to so many families as they journey through a challenging time.If you would like to support a worthy cause this Christmas, this might be the one you were looking for. Donations can be made very easily and securely online.

Cancer continues to affect all of us. Every 3 minutes in Ireland someone gets a cancer diagnosis. Every hour someone dies from cancer. Incidence of cancer is growing and by 2020, 1 in 2 of us will get a cancer diagnosis in our lifetime.* The Marie Keating Foundation will re-double our efforts to encourage people to make healthy lifestyle choices in 2018 and to provide practical support to those affected by cancer. But we could not make such a difference for so many without your ongoing support.

From all the team at the Marie Keating Foundation, we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year.

Best wishes,
Liz Yeates,
Chief Executive Officer.