Mighty Lions clubs are helping out our busy frontline workers

THANKS to an initiative started by a member of Macroom Lions club, others across West Cork and nationwide have united to raise almost €100,000 to protect our frontline workers battling Covid-19.

James O’Sullivan, Delforno Tiles and Timber and of the Macroom Lions Club, explained: ‘We deal a lot with companies in Italy. So, having seen what precautions they took and the lack of protective masks available here, I discussed this with my fellow Macroom Lions Club members and we decided to work together to raise money so that we could provide as many face visors as we could to those who needed them.’

Following an appeal from Macroom, other Lions Club members in Bantry, Clonakilty, Skibbereen and Kinsale also took part in the drive to provide more face visors for hospital and emergency service workers.

‘Soon the word went out to all the other clubs in Ireland and before we knew it we had €20,000,’ James said.

However, while James and his Lions Club members had secured the funds and a manufacturer to provide them with visors, it soon became apparent that the HSE had purchased all that this company could provide.‘That’s when I contacted Glen Dimplex and they are now producing 8,000 visors per day,’ James said.

‘We gave the first 15,000 to the gardaí who had no visors at all and since then they are helping us to distribute the visors to hospitals, nursing homes, GPs and carers across the country.’

The 106 Lions Clubs in Ireland aim to provide 200,000, ‘Hero Shield’ face visors, which will be distributed free of charge to frontline workers across the country, both north and south.

‘We want to make sure that anyone who needs the face visors can get access to them be they, doctors, nurses, paramedics or carers so email me if you need them.’

If you want to donate you can contact James at [email protected] or log on to the Macroom Lions Club Facebook page for more details.