“I had a brother called Gordon who died at the age of three. He was the eldest so I didn’t get to know him personally but growing up, we were very aware of his absence. I couldn’t help but question ‘What went wrong? Why him?’ I saw the impact of his early death on my parents and family. I still wonder how different the outcome might have been now, more than 40 years on. That deep-rooted questioning attracted me to working in an organisation that funded paediatric research and healthcare.

When you work in an organisation like CMRF Crumlin, you get to see, hear and feel the benefits of the money our donors invest into research and extraordinary care. Even when you’re walking down the hospital corridors, you see first-hand the parents who have benefitted from the wraparound services donations make possible, and the hope that comes with research.

I just had my second baby when this role came up, so to be honest the timing wasn’t the best, but I thought it could be another five years before a role like it came up so I went for it.

Everybody can relate to caring for a sick child, and as a parent, you worry about your children all the time, about their welfare, their health, and about their future.  You can see the added worry in a parent when their child is sick, or when they have just heard they’ve got a life-long diagnosis or an illness that has no cure. It touches everyone. I have been through Crumlin myself as a baby and so have my children though thankfully in our case nothing too serious.  When I see the huge difference CMRF Crumlin helps make possible, it gives me a great sense of pride, knowing we are helping connect wonderful people with the opportunity to give sick children the extraordinary care they need and the best outcomes possible.

We fundraise for two core focuses and we can’t take our eye off the ball, even for a second. Care and Cure. We provide vital funding for Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital Crumlin and we will support them until the last child leaves Crumlin whilst the new hospital is being built. We are also the sole funding body for the NCRC (National Children’s Research Centre). The programmes we can support thanks to our fundraisers, and volunteers, partners and donors, and the brilliantly devoted team here, helps improve quality of life for children every single day, and provide the funding for vital research to make tomorrow’s health care better than today’s.

Once people hear about our young heroes, they get on board to help and donate. Paediatric research is grossly underfunded in Ireland and we’re delighted to champion it and fund it, but we need more people to help, we can’t do it on our own. My hope for the future with CMRF is to fund more research and to continue to be there for children today and into the future with cutting edge approaches, medicines and technologies.  By learning more, we can prevent more families going through tough journeys in the future. Breakthroughs will solve so many problems for sick children but we need donors, fundraisers and our community to support us every step of the way. Without them, we don’t advance. Without them, we can’t find answers. They play a pivotal role in our success for children.

We’ve been so fortunate that the people we have on the ground have a personal connection with, and commitment to, CMRF and Crumlin. We like to call them our ‘Crum-Alum’ – a wonderful alumni of people who have backed and supported Crumlin, and will continue to do so into the future. The future of paediatric care and research is going to be better because of what we fund, and because of the people who support us. I’m so grateful to each and every supporter for the impact they make for so many of Ireland’s sickest children.”

Lisa-Nicole Dunne, CEO of CMRF Crumlin.