kind gesture Sisters raffle late parents' Donegal home with 5pc going to Beaumont Hospital

A FAMILY are holding a prize draw for a coastal home and £50,000 (€58,500) and will donate 5pc of the proceeds to Beaumont Hospital to thank the staff who cared for their late parents.

Marcia Turley and her sisters organised the draw after being left the Donegal family home when their parents died eight weeks apart in 2018.

Her father, Ben Gallagher, became ill in October 2016 and was hospitalised with heart failure.

Her mother, Lyndall, was hospitalised only 10 days later with a brain tumour.

"The nurses were amazing. They put dad up in mum's ward so they could visit each other," Ms Turley said.

"He kept going across to hold her hand. It was really lovely that way.

"He was kind of able-minded but not able-bodied and she was kind of able-bodied but not able-minded."

Ms Turley and her sisters were later told their mother needed brain surgery.

Without intervention, she could have died within six weeks.

Mrs Gallagher lived for 18 more months, thanks in part to the Beaumont staff.

As a thank you, Ms Turley and her sisters are donating 5pc of the money they raise in the prize draw to the hospital.

"They could buy some lifesaving equipment or do some life-saving research, you never know," she said.

While it was a difficult time for the family, Ms Turley said she was glad it did not happen during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"We were grateful in one way that it all happened then, and we were grateful in another way that Daddy went first because he couldn't have coped watching her die," she said.

Mr Gallagher died in hospital on March 29, 2018, and his wife died on May 21 in a hospice.

Tickets for the draw costing £10 (€11.70) with 70,000 available at https://raffall.com/193700/enter-raffle-to-win-donegal-coastal-property-50k-hosted-by-susan-ryan .

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