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REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE ALZHEIMER SOCIETY OF IRELANDDAY CARE CENTRE

REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MARY McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE ALZHEIMER SOCIETY OF IRELAND DAY CARE CENTRE

Firstly, I’d like to thank Barbara Scully of the Alzheimer Society for making contact with me about the Centre here in Curlew Road. It is a great honour for me to have been invited to formally open the facility – and to do so on World Alzheimer Day – a fitting day to formally mark the arrival in West Dublin of the new Day Care Centre. I am grateful also for the opportunity to meet the some of the patients and their carers – and the dedicated people who work at the Day Care Centre bringing a lot of comfort to those in their charge - easing their suffering - and, importantly, giving some respite to those who care for them at home - to lighten their burden.

Indeed, I know that many of you are involved with the association precisely because you have relatives who are Alzheimer sufferers. As such, you have the double burden of having to provide continuous care – and of seeing a loved one lose their vitality – lose the essence and colour of the character that you have come to know and love – and perhaps to depend on – as the disease gradually takes its hold – and slowly takes them away from you. I know that that cannot be a light burden to carry – that it can take its own toll on carers and family – that it can at times lead to despair and frustration.

For all of you, facilities like this Day Care Centre are essential – essential primarily as somewhere where you know that the person you love will be treated properly – with dignity and compassion - and thereby giving some temporary respite from the mounting burden of care and worry.

Building and running a Centre such as this is not easy - and I know that it is the combination of a great deal of effort by the Committee and the supporters – and by the staff at the Centre. I would like to take this opportunity to pay a warm tribute to Nurse Irene Feore who – along with her team of trained and very dedicated workers and volunteers – make sure that all of the patients who come here are given a hospitable welcome and professional care. It is so important for patients that they are not subject to stress or discomfort – and I know that all of you who work here are totally committed to those who so badly need the services that you provide.

A lot happened between the time the decision to build the centre was made in 1995 and when you opened the doors in July of last year. It is to the great credit of the Dublin West Branch that you achieved so much in such a short space of time – and I would like to commend all those who were a part of the effort involved. I know that it would not have been possible without the support and assistance of the many people who contributed – who supported your social fund-raising activities and collections – organisations like People in Need, who provided funding - the Eastern Health Board, who provided the site at no cost – some very generous corporate sponsors – and the Freemasons of Ireland, who donated the much-needed ambulance.

Great strides have been made in medical research in recent times – and the pace of discovery and development continues to increase. Ironically, it is these advances in medical research and development – advances that have greatly increased life expectancy – that have raised a new ‘problem’ of age-related disease. While, sadly, Alzheimers is still largely a mystery – we hope and pray that – with the new technologies and techniques that are constantly emerging - it may be curable and treatable someday soon. Until then we can only live in hope.

In declaring the Centre open, I would like to thank you again for inviting me here today – for giving me the opportunity to meet you and hear your stories – and to spend some time with those who are afflicted with this distressing condition. You are doing great work – providing a badly needed service. I wish you well in that work for the future as you continue to lighten the burden on those who suffer from dimentia and those who have to carry the double load of loss and care of loved ones.

ENDS