Money Raised Will Fund Over 9,750 Hours of In-Home Nursing Care and Respite Support for Jack and Jill Families in Communities Across Ireland

Circle K has raised €175,513 in much-needed funds for its charity partner, the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, in the first year of a two-year partnership with the children’s charity.

Through the support of Circle K customers, colleagues, and dealer partners the funds raised to date will help support over 9,750 hours of in-home nursing care and respite support for Jack and Jill families in communities across Ireland. Announced last year, Circle K’s two-year partnership with the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation will see at least €270,000 raised for the charity through several fundraising initiatives at service stations nationwide.

The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation is an Irish children’s charity that funds and delivers in-home nursing, respite support and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age who have highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions. There are currently over 400 children under the care of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation right across the country and the charity’s mission is to empower parents to care for their child at home, because there is no care like home care for a Jack and Jill child.

Commenting on the funds raised, Gillian McGowran, Director of Market Development at Circle K Ireland said: “We are delighted to have reached this fundraising milestone of €175,513 in just twelve months and lend our support to a charity that provides much-needed support to many families across Ireland. Achieving the volume of funds raised to date would not have been possible without our customers, colleagues, and dealer partners and I would like to thank them for all their support so far. Customers can continue to help us in our fundraising efforts for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation in the months to come by engaging in several upcoming initiatives, which we will be announcing soon on our social media channels.”

Carmel Doyle, CEO of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation added: “I’m delighted to be at Circle K Parkway West today to celebrate the huge volume of funds raised through our partnership to date. The funds raised allow our nursing team to continue to provide their vital support to Jack and Jill families, and it reminds those families that their local community cares. I would like to extend my gratitude to all the Circle K colleagues, customers, and dealer partners who have given their invaluable support and gone above and beyond for Jack and Jill over this past year. You have all made a real and genuine difference in supporting the families under our care and for that, we are immensely grateful.” 

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Circle K, Ireland’s largest forecourt and convenience retailer, is proud to announce that its Christmas charity initiative raised €40,000 in much-needed funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation is an Irish children’s charity that funds and delivers specialist in-home nursing and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age who have highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions. The initiative, which took place at Circle K sites nationwide, excluding Circle K Express, saw €1 from every carwash purchased between the 19^th-24^th December donated to the children’s charity. Through the support of Circle K customers and colleagues, the funds raised will provide 2,222 hours of vital home nursing care to over 400 children currently under the care of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation right across the country.

Commenting on the success of the initiative, Judy Glover, Senior Market Director at Circle K Ireland added: “We are delighted to have built on the success of last year’s initiative by exceeding our fundraising target and raising €40,000 in much-needed funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation carry out such important work to help families under their care across the country, and this donation wouldn’t be possible without the support of our colleagues, customers, and campaign ambassador, Stephanie Roche. From all at Circle K, we would like to thank everyone who supported the fundraising initiative this Christmas.’

Carmel Doyle, CEO of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation added: “I’m delighted to accept this tremendous donation of €40,000 as a result of Circle K’s recent carwash fundraising initiative. I would like to thank all the staff and customers at Circle K for their generosity and hard work in making this happen. This donation will fund vital home nursing care hours for Jack and Jill families and is a reminder that they are not on this care journey alone with the whole Circle K community behind them.” 

Soccer star and broadcaster Stephanie Roche, who officially launched the fundraising initiative concluded: “I was delighted to support Circle K and the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation on this initiative, and I am thrilled to hear how much money was raised in just a week. The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation provide such an important service to families and this donation ensures that they can continue to support those who need it most. Well done to all who donated to this cause.”

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When Lucy Thompson was born in October 2018, all seemed well at first, as her mum Carla explains.

“A doctor came round to see her and she thought she was a little bit floppy, but he checked her the next day and thought she was ok to be discharged, but we could go back and see a paediatrician when she was four months old,” the Mullingar mum says.

But over the months, little things cropped up with Lucy that gave her parents, Carla and Chris, a few concerns – some impaired hearing, failing to meet milestones such as rolling. However they didn’t realise something much bigger underpinned these conditions.

Genetic testing

“She didn’t sit up until she was nine months old – things like that. We went back to the paediatrician when she was 10 months old and I brought this all up that she wasn’t doing this and she wasn’t doing that and she said we’ll send her for genetic testing,” Carla says.

“And when she was 11 months old she was diagnosed with Zellweger syndrome, which is a rare genetic disorder and a life limiting condition.

“Both myself and Chris are carriers so we passed it down to Lucy. There was a 25% chance that she would get it. Only one in 50K people are diagnosed with it – it’s very rare and it’s a metabolic condition that would affect the brain, the liver and the kidneys.

“It was a bit of a shock to us because a lot of kids would have facial abnormalities and different things. She was eating well and doing everything well, only she wasn’t moving as much as a child would be at that age.”

Rare condition

Around 14 months, Lucy was starting to bum-shuffle and play, Carla says.

“She was saying Hiya and she would wave and point at her nose and do little bits that any child would. Then she broke her leg last May and since then, because she was stuck in the one position for three weeks, she completely regressed from then and she never moved after that.

“She can’t sit up any more and she has no neck control so it’s constant lifting and carrying her around. She started to get these muscle spasms then around November and she wasn’t sleeping at night and was in an awful lot of pain. She’s really only settled in the last three weeks and is back to sleeping through the night.”

Since Lucy’s diagnosis, Carla has become her full-time carer. Her husband Chris works in construction and the couple are now expecting their second child.

Specialist support

But their lives have been changed by a suggestion by a hospital outreach nurse that they get in touch with the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation, an Irish charity that funds and delivers specialist home nursing, respite support and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age who have complex and life-limiting medical conditions.

“With lockdown and everything, Lucy was so used to just seeing me, so I was nearly reluctant to have anyone here,” Carla admits.

“But Jack and Jill have been so good, coming in and doing nursing hours. We get 48 to 60 hours a month and it’s been just great to have that respite, for them to come in and for me even to go and do the shopping, or get out for a walk to clear your head, even for your own mental health.

“It takes the pressure off and you forget – you have your own little time and you forget the busyness of it all, until you come back.”

Key foundation

The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation was launched in 1997 by Jonathan Irwin and his wife Mary Ann O’Brien, the founder of Lily O’Brien’s chocolates, in memory of their son Jack who suffered a brain trauma shortly after birth that left him developmentally delayed.

The couple brought their baby home and put together their own homecare plan with the help of five local nurses from their neighbourhood, allowing their beloved Jack to live at home for 22 months until his death in December 1997.

Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation CEO Carmel Doyle says that became the blueprint for the charity – finding a specialist nurse who can come into the family home, talk to mum and dad, and deliver practical help and specialist knowledge that allows the family to do the normal things that the rest of us take for granted.

“The kind of children that Jack & Jill look after are children with severe to profound neurodevelopmental delay. They might be children with a brain injury as Jack had, or a genetic diagnosis or cerebral palsy,” she says.

Better at home

“These wonderful children come with a lot of challenges, so they may be tube fed, oxygen dependent, take a lot of seizures and have a lot of medication, but underneath all of that unknown for the parents, what we do know is that they do better at home where their parents want them, with a bit of help from Jack & Jill.

“We usually get a referral through the maternity unit and our nurse would go and meet the family and we will assess the situation and once the child meets our criteria, we’ll have a nurse there within 72 hours to help out and to give the parent carers a break.

“These parents are in charge of their child’s care plan but they need a bit of help, they need to be able to catch up on sleep, and if they have a Jack & Jill nurse who can come in and give them a break it’s amazing what they can do.

Supporting families

“Today we look after 400 children right around the country and we will fund and provide nursing for up to 80 hours per family. It’s not a weekend of respite or one week of respite – when a child comes to us and meets our criteria, that connection is going to be there for up to six years so that’s a big responsibility for us.

“It’s fast, it’s flexible and it’s delivered by a wonderful group of specialist nurses in Jack & Jill who are the case managers and who make this happen.”

Circle K have been involved with the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation since their Topaz days, but their newest partnership, launched on International Nurses Day, will see them undertake a major fundraising initiative called ‘miles for Jack and Jill’.

Sense of community

“I think the key thing about Circle K and Jack & Jill is all about community – we’re at the heart of the Irish community. and that’s why we match so well,” Carmel says.

“We’re so lucky to be a partner for Circle K. We think this partnership is really going to keep Jack & Jill sustainable and it’s going to fuel our service into the future.

“If you look at Circle K they’re all about families and making life a bit easier as you pop in and fuel your car and you get your few bits and pieces  so they look after people. We’re trying to do the same thing in terms of making life a bit easier for our families.

“The Circle K involvement actually allows us to sustain and expand the service, because recently we’ve expanded to the age of 6. We were at 5 up until last year, so we’ve expanded to the age of 6 and we’ve now increased the maximum hours that we will allocate per family to 80 – we couldn’t do all that without the care capital behind us, without raising the money.

Fuelling essential services

“So Circle K through their new campaign are going to raise a lot of money for Jack & Jill and they are also raising awareness because they’ve got a great advertising campaign going and also the branding in store as well and the app.

“You as a customer may be fuelling up your car but you’re also fuelling an essential service through Circle K who are providing us with the money to keep us on the road.”

Judy Glover, senior marketing director with Circle K, says the company has chosen to partner with Jack & Jill because Circle K is the largest fuel and convenience retailer, operating in every community in Ireland.

“Part of our brand is that we are fully committed to making a difference in these communities, so we need to align ourselves to partners that allow us to operate in the community,” she says.

Landmark year

“The Jack & Jill Community Foundation are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and they operate in the community, so this partnership is a nice fit for us.

“That money translates directly into nursing hours and there are 400 families in Ireland who rely on this support. It provides that gift of time back to the families. We feel that it’s so tangible for our customers to feel that they are making a difference.”

July says Circle K is aiming to raise at least €270,000 raised in much-needed funds for the charity, the equivalent of 15,000 hours of Jack and Jill’s in-home nursing care and respite support.

miles for Jack and Jill

“We are undertaking multiple initiatives in order to fulfil that commitment. The first thing we did was create ‘miles for Jack and Jill’ – this is a campaign running up until the end of July, running in our sites across the Republic, both company-owned stores and the Circle K express network.

“It’s hosted on our loyalty platform, so you can download the loyalty app CK or you can access it through the Play or Park loyalty game.

“So every time you make a purchase in-store, you scan the app or tag, and digital coins are created in the background which go back into a pot and go back into fuel for the nurses.

“It’s just the first of many initiatives and we’re aiming to generate €45,000 of fuel for these nurses between now and July.

“But we will be launching many more initiatives that the community and our stores can share in together.”

Godsend to families

Carla says the two Jack & Jill nurses, Deirdre and Liz, who care for Lucy with the help of Circle K’s support, have been a godsend to the family.

“Once they’re there, they can come in and feed Lucy or play with her and you just feel so safe with them, because you trust them and they just know here now, inside and out,” she says.

“She loves them and she knows them now – they’re like anyone in the family now. I’m due to give birth in August and they’re willing to come in and help out as much as they can, so it will be great to have them and I won’t have to worry.

“I just feel like they come in and take your mind off everything – no matter how intense your day can be, they just come in and uplift you. If you need any support, they’re just at the end of the phone – they’re always there to support you.

“It’s great that Circle K and Jack & Jill are coming together for this new campaign. They’re such a lovely bunch of people and it’s great to see the two come together for such a good cause.”

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The two-year partnership will see at least €270,000 raised in much-needed funds for the charity, the equivalent of 15,000 hours of Jack and Jill’s in-home nursing care and respite support.

Making the announcement on International Nurses Day was Senior Market Director of Circle K Ireland, Judy Glover and CEO of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, Carmel Doyle. Judy and Carmel announced the details of the new partnership today, which has launched in-store as a fundraising initiative called ‘miles for Jack and Jill’.

The ‘miles for Jack and Jill’ campaign is running at the majority of sites nationwide, including Circle K Express sites in the Republic of Ireland. From now until July 31^st, Circle K customers can show their support for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation by simply scanning either the Circle K app or their Play or Park loyalty tag in-store when purchasing miles fuel. In doing so, they will automatically generate digital coins, which the nursing team at the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation can then use to fuel their journeys to families in need of their support in communities across Ireland. Through the campaign, Circle K is aiming to raise up to €45,000 worth of fuel for the Jack and Jill nursing team.

The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, which this year celebrates its 25^th anniversary, is an Irish children’s charity that funds and delivers specialist home nursing, respite support and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age who have highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions. Its mission is to empower parents to care for their child at home because there is no care like home care for a Jack and Jill child.

Commenting on the initiative, Judy Glover, Senior Market Director at Circle K Ireland, said; “We are delighted to once again extend our support to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation and raise vital funds for the charity over the next two years. The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation and its nursing team provide such an important service to many families across Ireland, and we wanted to continue making it easier than ever for our customers to donate. Our first fundraising initiative for the new partnership runs from now until July 31^st and all customers have to do is simply scan our Circle K app or loyalty tag in-store when purchasing miles fuel. It costs them nothing to do this but will benefit the charity greatly, as they will be fuelling the journeys of Jack and Jill nurses for months to come.”

Carmel Doyle, CEO of Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation, added “We are so proud to welcome Circle K into our community of local heroes who care.  With an all-time high of 400 families under our care today, this partnership couldn’t come at a better time, particularly as we mark 25 years of Jack and Jill, determined to meet the growing demand for our service.  As a local Irish children’s charity, we are all about family, community and making life a little easier through our ongoing care commitment of up to 80 hours per month per family for up to six years.  That is a big responsibility in terms of funding and delivery.

“Therefore, we are asking Circle K staff and customers to shop local, support local and donate local, in the knowledge that their donation will support young children locally with specialist home nursing care, including end-of-life care. We believe there is no care like home care and with your help, we can keep Jack and Jill children warm, cosy and well cared for at home in their community, where they belong.”

Broadcaster Louise Duffy and Kerry football legend Paul Galvin were also at the official launch of Circle K’s new partnership with the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation at O’Brien’s Circle K, Mullingar today.

Louise and Paul both concluded: “As parents, the important service that the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation provides to many families nationwide is very close to our hearts and we were delighted to be asked to lend our support to the ‘miles for Jack and Jill’ fundraising initiative. From now until July 31^st, Circle K customers can easily donate to Jack and Jill by simply scanning the Circle K app or loyalty tag in-store when purchasing miles fuel. We will be paying many visits to a Circle K to support as much as possible over the coming months.”

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The research was published as part of the launch of Circle K’s new charity fundraising initiative in sites nationwide, excluding Circle K Express. All proceeds raised from the initiative will go directly to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

From Sunday 19th December to Friday 24th December 2021 inclusive, €1 from every car wash purchase at a Circle K, excluding Circle K Express, will automatically be donated to the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation.

According to new research conducted by Circle K, 39% of motorists think it is important to visit a car wash to make sure that their vehicle is looking its best before Christmas. Of those, 59% plan to visit a jet car wash at a forecourt before the festive period.

With many people planning to visit a car wash this Christmas, Circle K is encouraging motorists to visit one of its car washes next week. In doing so, not only will motorists be availing of the best car wash technology on the Irish market but will also be supporting a very important cause.

At least €30,000 in much-needed funds will be raised through the initiative, providing at least 1,667 hours of specialist home nursing care support for the 402 children under the care of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation in communities across the country.

The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation is an Irish children’s charity that funds and delivers specialist home nursing and end-of-life care for children from birth to six years of age who have highly complex and life-limiting medical conditions.

This Christmas, as the pandemic continues, it is more important than ever for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation to keep the children it supports at home with their family and out of hospital. Because there is no care like home care, especially at Christmas time.

Commenting on the initiative, Ciara Foxton, Finance Director at Circle K Ireland added: “We are delighted to lend our support to raise much needed funds for the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation this Christmas. The work of the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation provides invaluable support to families across Ireland, and we believe this initiative will go far in lending a helping hand at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic has significantly impacted many charities’  fundraising efforts.

“We wanted to make supporting a very important cause easier than ever, and so all you need to do to show your support for Jack and Jill this Christmas is to visit one of our car wash facilities next week and we’ll donate on your behalf’’.”

Carmel Doyle, CEO of the Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation added: “With more families than ever relying on Jack & Jill’s support right across the country, this fundraiser couldn’t come at a better time, and we thank our friends at Circle K for making it happen.

“We all know that getting the car washed for Christmas is high on the to do list and we would ask people to visit their local Circle K car wash and, in that way, they’ll be helping local Jack & Jill families.  Donating this €1 dosh from the traditional car wash is a great idea and our €30,000 target will fund 1,667 hours of specialist home nursing care, or 4 hours for each and every one of our 402 families. A lovely Christmas gift of time.”

Broadcaster Anna Daly was at Circle K Dundrum to officially launch the fundraising initiative.

“I was delighted to be asked by Circle K and the Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation to lend my support to this fantastic initiative. I’m a long-time supporter of Jack and Jill and the work they do with children and families is incredible in supporting them through difficult circumstances,” she said.

“Circle K have made it so easy to donate to Jack and Jill – by simply purchasing a car wash between the 19th and 24th December, you will be donating €1 in much needed funds to the charity. Not only will you be getting a shiny, clean car, but you will also be supporting children across Ireland with life- limiting conditions and keeping them at home with their families this Christmas. I’ll be putting mine through the car wash on Christmas week for sure!”

For more information, visit www.circlek.ie, Circle K Ireland on Facebook or @circlekireland on Twitter and Instagram.

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