REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE IRISH CANCER SOCIETY EVENT
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE IRISH CANCER SOCIETY EVENT TO HONOUR LONG-STANDING PATIENT SUPPORT VOLUNTEERS
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I was delighted to say yes to John McCormack’s invitation to this event which pays a special tribute to the Irish Cancer Society’s long-standing patient support volunteers. One of the very special aspects of being President is the insight it gives me into just how much quiet good is done throughout our country by all sorts of volunteers. They don’t shout about what they do, it is not done for recognition, or for any selfish reasons. Volunteers see gaps in other people’s lives that could be filled by care, compassion, support, encouragement, help - and they step forward into the gap, taking responsibility on themselves for filling it.
Few societies in this world have as strong a culture of volunteering as Ireland. It relies on generosity and it is remarkable what that generosity can accomplish. In the case of cancer support, volunteers accompany cancer patients through what is a particularly difficult and worrying time of their lives, following a diagnosis of cancer.
Although survival rates are improving all the time and treatments are improving outcomes, the simple truth is that a diagnosis of cancer is not good news and it interrupts many a life, many a family, bringing shock, fear and uncertainty. A patient is pitched into a strange world of tests, treatments, hospitals and clinics. Life takes on a different shape as people adapt to the impact of serious illness on their lives.
It can also be a very lonely world as the cancer sufferer tries to show a brave, stoical face to family, friends and colleagues. The Irish Cancer Society Volunteers know that world well for many of them are cancer survivors or members of families which have been down the difficult cancer road. They are trained and experienced and they know that everyone needs someone to turn to, to talk to and to be completely open with. So these busy people carve out a space in their lives and in that space they make themselves available to cancer patients, to listen, counsel, advise, encourage, distract, befriend, to simply be there for them when needed. Albert Camus’ words describe well what your vocation is:
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead
Just walk beside me and be my friend.
Four hundred long term volunteers have walked beside thousands of men, women and children affected by cancer. You could not go their life for them but you could go it with them and that is what you did and kept on doing year in and year out, so that Irish Cancer Society could offer a ready system of support programmes. Today or tomorrow, someone new is going to need the services you provide and they are going to be very glad that you are there. It is a rare privilege to be invited into another person’s life so deeply and profoundly for you will see them sometimes at their lowest, sometimes suffering, sometimes buoyant and sometimes dealing with news that is good or news that is bad. This work calls for great sensitivity and insight and for a wisdom that is enhanced the more years you invest in it. So today we honour the best of the best. These men and women who sought no spotlight or honour but whose investment in care and compassion allows the human spirit to be lifted up, allows hope to flourish and showcases the good we are capable of creating by giving unselfishly without counting the cost.
The Irish Cancer Society can do great things because of its volunteers. Today we say a heartfelt thank you to them for making this work of care their personal vocation and responsibility and for staying with it for the longhaul. Each one of you will have seen huge improvement in cancer services over the years. Your work has helped bring those improvements about. The success of ICS support services is quite simply down to your fidelity, dedication and turning up, not because you have to but because you want to.
I congratulate you all, thank you sincerely and wish you every success in the future.