Companies and workers encouraged to donate time and salary to good cause

A major hospitality group is urging companies to join it in a huge fundraising drive for hospices in Ireland following the “phenomenal care” that a colleague’s father received.

Sean Graham’s dad, Brendan, 87, died under the care of staff at St Francis Hospice in Dublin’s Blanchardstown.

Now Sean’s employers, hospitality multinational Prem Group, is backing the first ever Your Finest Hour for Hospice drive, asking employees to donate an hour of their salary in return for an hour of downtime from employers.

Organisers Together For Hospice hope it will spark a nationwide workplace charity initiative involving more than 100 companies nationwide collectively raising funds in April.

Mr Graham, chief information officer with the Dublin-based Prem group, said: “Unless people witness it, they don’t know how unbelievable hospice is.

“It is a phenomenal organisation, none of the care is means-tested, there’s no cost, they simply take the pressure off grieving families.”

The father-of-two from Clane, Co Kildare, said his father, a former Guinness worker from Dublin’s Ashtown, entered St Francis in 2021 after a cancer diagnosis.

He died there in September of that year.

“My last words to dad were, ‘thank you so much for everything you ever did for us’. I feel tremendously lucky to have had that experience.

“The dignity that they showed to a man in his final hours; the three words I constantly use in relation to hospice are: love, dignity and respect.

“Nothing was too much and no detail was overlooked.”

Prem Group is the first major firm to row in behind the campaign, spurred on by data which shows that hospices nationwide need to raise about 20 million euro annually to continue operating.

With the population over 65 set to more than double in the next 30 years, demand for services continues to grow and, in 2023 alone, hospice and specialist palliative homecare providers cared for more than 14,000 patients and made over 87,000 homecare visits.

In return for employees donating an hour of their salary in April, employers are asked to reward them by treating staff to an office takeaway, giving them a wellbeing hour – or simply an hour off work.

Registered firms will be given a digital information pack and every cent raised in local firms, goes to local hospices.

Mr Graham said: “We take so much for granted in life, the hospice teams around Ireland are a gift in people’s final hours.”

Companies and employees, either in partnership or separately, are asked to register to support the initiative at: finesthour.ie