Who we are

Hand in Hand is a non-profit organisation which provides the families of children with cancer with much-needed practical support.

We support families in the West of Ireland who are affected by childhood cancer by giving them access to professional service providers.

By availing of our services, families find they have more precious time to spend with their children rather than trying to keep on top of household chores.

We are unique in that we are the only voluntary organisation in the West that supports children and their families through cancer treatment.

What we do

We engage professional services suppliers to provide the following support to all families in the West of Ireland before, during and after their child’s cancer treatment:

• support with child care
• domestic cleaning services
• household laundry
• meal delivery

Families who contact us are individually assessed so that we can tailor the services available to their needs. Our services are driven by user needs identified through feedback from affected families, and we aim to continually adapt to families’ needs.

Background

Hand in Hand was established by a group of volunteers in 2006 who were inspired by a two-year-old Galway girl who was receiving treatment for leukaemia in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin. Originally known as CD’s Helping Hand, we underwent a rebrand in 2011.

Our original founders’ main aim was to help children with cancer in the West of Ireland who have the added dimension of travelling long distances to Dublin for their primary care and treatment.

In most cases there are other siblings to care for while Mum, Dad or guardians travel to Dublin or to local hospitals to treat infections with their sick child.

Our focus has always been to give these children and their families on-the-ground support in order to minimise the impact that both the diagnosis and frequent long distance travel for treatment has on family life.

Board of directors

We are also lucky to have the support of three ‘ambassadors’ who help raise awareness about our services and their benefits to families.  Meet our Ambassadors.