Lucinda O'Sullivan's Ireland

Thursday 26 November 2009

The ‘LauraLynn Children’s Hospice’ Foundation was set up in 2001 as a result of an enormous personal tragedy in the lives of Jane and Brendan McKenna which saw them lose both of their precious daughters Laura and Lynn in the space of just two years. Their youngest daughter Laura was born with a hole in her heart, and having endured and survived six months and two serious operations in Our Lady’s Hospital, went on to have a few relatively good years, with the final repair operation to come. Sadly when it did, Laura did not survive it and died in 1999, aged just 4. Her mum describes Laura as ‘a very happy, funny, beautiful little girl. A real Shirley Temple with her mass of curls, she always had a smile and made us all laugh so much – she was so cute and so brave’. Lynn, on the other hand, had 13 years of perfect health until she was diagnosed with Leukemia on the very day her younger sister passed away. How she coped with her illness, her adored sister’s sad death and her own impending death was an inspiration to her parents. Jane says ‘’Lynn had a wonderful 3 weeks in which she knew she was dying, wished it could be different, but accepted it with dignity, aged just 15. She had great courage and huge acceptance. She lived every minute of those weeks to the full, which is how we should all live our lives. She taught us how to live and how to die. It is why we are where we are, and why we survive. While our own situation is very sad, there are many families coping with far worse. Our hope is to help those families out there, whose children have life‐limiting and/or life‐threatening conditions, and are coping at present with limited support.’’ The Hospice or House as Jane prefers to call it, is about respite for the family as a whole. It is about putting ‘Life into a child’s day, not days into a child’s life’. For parents, it will give that much needed break – often as simple as a decent night’s sleep. It will also support healthy siblings, who are very much left out, when a sick child needs 24 hour care. It will offer families a choice when the end comes and ongoing support for the family when the child has passed on, for as long as they choose, which is hugely important, as life can never be the same again. Home Care is also a huge part of the service, as is linking with other organizations working in similar areas.
Dalkey, Co. Dublin
8th December 2009
8.00pm
We are proud to present Ireland’s first celebrity run restaurant in aid of
The Laura Lynn Children’s
Hospice Foundation www.lauralynnhospice.com
The evening kicks off at 8pm
Guests will be greeted at the door by the Maitre d’s Pat Kenny & Lisa Murphy offered a glass of champagne, serenaded by the fantastic Café Orchestra and shown to their table.
Here the guests will meet their waiter for the night, (Glenda Gilson, DJ Carey, Louis Copeland, Rosanna Davison, George Hook or one celebrity waiter yet to be confirmed) we will be running our full A la Carte menu.
We will be serving two white and two red house wines each wine will be described in detail by one of our sommeliers (Tom Doorley or Paolo Tullio). House wines are included in the ticket price, however should our guests wish to order something special, we will have a fine wine list available and all proceeds from this list will go to Laura Lynn.
Once your guests have placed their order, its off to the kitchen where our chef’s Gerald Kean and Sarah Newman will have to work a little magic to produce the food. And as if the pressure of cooking for seventy guests won’t be enough, guests will be able to see their food being prepared on screens throughout the restaurant.
There will of course be a raffle and to finish the night we will have a karaoke competition.
Tickets for the event are priced at €250 per person. All Ouzos staff will work free of charge and all food and house wine will be donated by Ouzos suppliers. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the Laura Lynn Children’s Hospice Foundation.
This is not about splashing out €250 on a meal, its about supporting a fantastic charity setup to support children and families in their hour of need
The Staff
Pat Kenny Lisa Murphy
Gerald Kean Paolo Tullio
Tom Doorley Sarah Newman
DJ Carey George Hook
Glenda Gilson Rosanna Louis
Davison Copeland
& Special Guest ?