About Hand in Hand

Hand in Hand provides practical support services to families affected by childhood cancer throughout Ireland.

Our History...

Hand in Hand was established in 2006 by a group of volunteers in Galway. They had helped a local family when their two-year-old girl received leukaemia treatment in Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin.

The founders’ main aim was to help other families with a child diagnosed with cancer in the West of Ireland; who have the added dimension of travelling long distances to Dublin for their primary care and treatment.

Today Hand in Hand work with families in every county throughout Ireland who are affected by childhood cancer.

In most cases, there are other siblings to care for in most cases 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 to minimise the impact that both the diagnosis and frequent long-distance travel for treatment has on family life.

These supports are free of charge and aim to alleviate some of the stress associated with a child’s cancer diagnosis.

Vision, Mission, And Values

Our Values

We value growth to enable our services to extend to all affected families and to increase the level and type of services offered. We highly value empowerment, providing the necessary support to empower families to cope with the diagnosis and treatment they face.

Our Mission

The mission of Hand in Hand is to alleviate, as much as is possible, the stress and anxiety that is inherent with a diagnosis of childhood cancer. It provides a comprehensive range of practical and emotional support services to all affected families throughout their child’s treatment.

Our Vision

To see every family who has a child diagnosed with cancer provided a tailor-made package of practical and emotional support services that range from counselling, play therapy, complementary therapies, hot meals, laundry, and domestic cleaning.

What We Do

Hand in Hand is there from the very start, looking after the ordinary while families deal with extraordinary circumstances. By partnering with local professional service providers for essential services, we aim to help alleviate some of the stress and anxiety accompanying a cancer diagnosis and treatment. We offer a range of support and assistance so that no family in Ireland has to face cancer alone.

Get Support

Meet Our Team

Our team is committed to providing excellent support for families. Our staff are good listeners, are non-judgemental, and we all have a shared desire to change our members’ lives for the better. Their hard work and dedication is our organisation’s strength. Our Team plays an active role in fundraising and contributes to the organisation’s area in which they have the most expertise.

Governance

Inspiring Stories

My name is Poppy, I am 9 years old and I’m from Sligo. I like to play with my friends, draw, watch TV and I love animals. My life was good and lots of fun until I was diagnosed with leukemia 9 months ago. This is a type of blood cancer that is not easy to live with. The treatment is for two and a half years and is very harsh. One medicine made my hair all fall out and I was sad and I cried, I now have short hair and I love it, although everyone thinks I’m a boy. The medicine also made me so weak that I ended up in a wheelchair because I couldn’t walk and I was so bad at one stage that my mum had to turn me over in bed because I didn’t have the strength to even move. I also have had to go to theatre over 10 times so far and have had over 10 transfusions as my blood cells can get quite low with the chemo. Me & my mum have to travel to Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin a lot, it’s a nice hospital, we used to have to drive up every week from Sligo for my treatment, but now it’s just every month.

Meet Poppy

Our daughter Sophie was diagnosed with Bi-Lateral Wilms Tumour (Cancer in both her kidneys) in when she was 16 months old. She underwent 12 months of chemotherapy and 6 sessions of radiotherapy. She had to have both her kidneys removed and started dialysis 3 days a week in Temple Street Children’s Hospital. We traveled from Sligo to Dublin 3 days a week for dialysis. Normal life ceased to exist for us, our entire life revolved around the trips to Dublin for dialysis and in that first year for chemotherapy. We had to put our life on hold and yet try to keep life normal for our oldest child Darragh who was 4 at the time. There was always the constant worry about Sophie and how her treatment & dialysis was going, the endless traveling to Dublin, worrying how Darragh was coping with it all particularly because we had to be away from home so often. We could never plan ahead of anything because you never knew when Sophie would get sick or spike a temperature and we would have to go to Temple Street with her, while Darragh was minded by family members. Thomas took leave from his job for 2 years to travel to Dublin with Sophie.

Meet Sophie