Nova’s PJ and Jim call on Ireland’s men to take on The Dickie Dip!

Attention all men! The Mater Hospital Foundation has teamed up with Radio Nova’s Morning Glory presenters PJ Gallagher and Jim McCabe to encourage men from all across Ireland to take part in The Dickie Dip; the annual, all-male, life-affirming skinny dip fundraiser, taking place in Skerries, Co. Dublin on Saturday, 16th November. Will you be as brave as PJ and Jim, leave your swimming trunks behind, strip off and take a dip in the sea in nothing but a dickie bow this November, all to support men’s cancer care in the Mater Hospital?

Be daring, be determined…be a Dickie Dipper for men’s cancer care and join PJ, Jim and hundreds of brave men baring it all and wading into the sea to help make a life-saving difference for men’s cancer patients in the Mater Hospital. Since the inaugural event in 2019, The Dickie Dip participants have stood in solidarity with their fellow men and raised a phenomenal €414,000 to provide essential supports and services for patients who need it most in the hospital.

This year, the Mater Hospital Foundation hopes to raise an ambitious €120,000 for men’s cancer care in the Mater, with the help of hundreds of brave dippers making a real splash in Skerries on Saturday, 16th November.

It couldn’t be easier to take part. Simply click here and fill out the short registration form. Every dipper who signs up will receive a free dickie bow and a personalised Eventmaster fundraising page, which they can share with family, friends, colleagues and neighbours. Participants will also be invited to join the Dickie Dip Facebook Group, where you can meet with fellow Dickie Dip participants and learn more about this exhilarating and impactful event.

Commenting on his support of the 2024 Dickie Dip, Radio Nova’s PJ Gallagher says, “Everyone knows I love getting up for the craic at the crack of dawn with Jim, so getting up for hundreds of dawning cracks will be an unreal experience for a brilliant cause! It doesn’t matter who you are or what shape you’re in, just wear a Dicke Bow and come and join us for the fun.”

PJ’s Morning Glory co-host Jim McCabe says, “I would have said there’s never a good reason for a middle-aged man to walk into the sea in the nip, turns out I was wrong! Cancer Care at the Mater Hospital is a great reason. So, assuming there’s nothing in the sea to nip me while I’m in the nip, I’m happy to help with PJ and it’s great that there is no need for us to worry about a dress code for the day.”

Speaking about The Dickie Dip 2024, Mary Moorhead, Chief Executive of the Mater Hospital Foundation says, “The Dickie Dip is back for 2024 and we are delighted to see our community of dippers continue to grow! We are thrilled to have the support of PJ and Jim for this year’s event and hope that their involvement will inspire and encourage brave men from all over Ireland to come along and get involved in Skerries on Saturday, 16th November. The commitment of our dippers to support men’s cancer care in the Mater is so inspiring and we continue to be humbled by their incredible fundraising every year.”

She adds, “On behalf of all of us in the Foundation and the Hospital, we’d like to say a special thanks to PJ and Jim for kindly giving their time to support this important event and for daring to dip this November! Our thanks to our wonderful Dickie Dip Skerries Committee, to our friends in Fingal County Council and to everyone who dips or donates to support this important cause. With your support, we can continue to have a positive impact on the lives of our brothers, sons, fathers, uncles, husbands and more, being treated for cancer in the Mater Hospital.”

To register for The Dickie Dip for men’s cancer care in Skerries, Co. Dublin on Saturday, 16th November, simply click here or call 01 830 3482 to learn more.

Return your Marilyn’s
Mater Paddle funds!

You’ve paddled, posed and pouted…and now it’s time to put those sponsorship funds to work for women’s cancer care in the Mater Hospital!

Marilyn’s Mater Paddle is not only a unique day of glamour and glitz but it will also make a real difference to the lives of women who come to the Mater Hospital for cancer treatment.

Below you’ll find details of how you can return the wonderful funds you raised. Remember, we are here to support you every step of the way, so if you’ve any queries, don’t hesitate to contact us at fundraising@materfoundation.ie.

Eventmaster

If you’ve been fundraising using your personalised Eventmaster page – great! You are all set! All funds raised on your page will come automatically to the Mater Hospital Foundation.

Website

You can return your funds online via our website here.
To help us identify your funds, please include your name in the reference field.

Cheque / Draft / Postal Order

Please note our bank will ONLY accept cheques made payable to The Mater Foundation. Please send to us at: The Mater Hospital Foundation, 53-54 Eccles Street, Dublin 7, D07 KH4C. Don’t forget to include your name so we can confirm receipt of funds.

Sponsorship Card

If you did your fundraising via sponsorship card, you can pop it back to us in the post along with a postal order with the amount you’ve raised. For safety, don’t send cash through the post!

Bank Transfer

You can send your Marilyn’s Mater Paddle funds to us by bank transfer by using the bank details below. To help us identify your funds, please include your full name in the reference field.

Account Name: The Mater Foundation
Branch: Bank of Ireland, Drumcondra, D9
Sort Code: 90-05-19
Account No.: 87067661
IBAN: IE92BOFI90051987067661
BIC: BOFIIE2D

If you need any support, contact us at fundraising@materfoundation.ie or
call 01 830 3482.

Friday, 24th November: Update regarding Remember Me Walk, Sunday, 26th November 

In light of events in the city centre over the past 24-hours and out of respect to our local community and healthcare workers, we have taken the difficult decision to cancel our planned Remember Me Walk in St. Anne’s Park, Raheny this Sunday, 26th November.

As this is a constantly evolving situation, we believe this is the correct decision in order to keep everyone safe.

We are disappointed that we won’t have the opportunity to gather with you on Sunday and we hope you will understand and accept our apologies. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this terrible incident.

To everyone who has fundraised in advance of the Walk to support end-of-life care, we would like to thank you for continuing to be there for our patients and their families.

Our latest ‘Heart of the Mater’ newsletter drops this week!

The Mater Foundation is immensely grateful to the Dublin Airport Authority, who have made an incredible donation of €130,000 to the Mater Foundation from their Charity of the Year initiative.

The Mater Foundation was one of three charities to benefit from their staff’s phenomenal fundraising and with the kind support from their passengers. This takes the total amount raised by daa staff since 2007 to more than €3.4 million, which has been shared amongst 30 charities.

Each year, daa employees select the charities that benefit from the Charity of the Year programme, before embarking on a wide range of fundraising activities over the course of the following twelve months. The fundraising period this time around was extended from 2020 due to the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

These funds be put to work to make a real difference for our patients and their families who attend the hospital each year. From all of us in the Foundation, to all daa staff members and everyone who helped make this incredible total possible…THANK YOU!

Mater Foundation funds new Mater PET/CT

This year, a new PET/CT scanner was installed in the Mater Hospital and is now being used to diagnose and manage a range of conditions and diseases. This important advancement was made possible with the help and generosity of Mater Foundation supporters and was launched earlier in 2022.

The Mater Foundation remitted €1.06million in funding towards the purchase of this new scanner; the best of its kind in the country. The digital PET/CT scanner is a critical piece of equipment for detecting and managing cancer. It is also used to diagnose illnesses such as Parkinson’s Disease and Dementia.

None of this would have been made possible without the compassion and dedication of our incredible supporters across Ireland; from Mater Hospital staff who took on our challenges to kind individuals, communities and corporate partners who went above and beyond to raise vital funds in so many creative ways.

Amazing things happen when people come together to help others and, by working together, we can continue to make a real and lasting impact on the lives of our patients and their families.

A PET/CT scanner has been in use at the Mater for many years providing advanced scans. However, the machine had turned obsolete and needed to be upgraded. Now, thanks to the kindness and unwavering dedication of Mater Foundation supporters, we have been able to bring the very latest in medical technology to the hospital.

The new PET/CT, which scans patients at a much faster rate, means that over 1,000 patients each year will have access to a state-of-the art PET/CT service. This will lead to more patients being diagnosed earlier, receiving more sophisticated treatments that can be provided with detailed monitoring, and creates opportunity for new treatment pathways to be developed giving patients access to therapeutic trials.

This is a long-term investment that will make significant improvements to the lives of patients and reaffirms MMUH’s position as a leading national unit for PET/CT.

We are so proud to officially launch our 2021 Impact Report and to invite you to read through our achievements and how we are ‘Investing in Our Future’.

In 2021 we continued to feel the full force of Covid-19 which presented on-going challenges across the hospital campus.

Despite the extraordinary disruption caused by this once-in-a-century global pandemic, the hospital continued to remain ambitious in its focus. It further enhanced its role as an international leader in the provision of complex care and specialist services, and as a result, so did the Mater Foundation.

Our 2021 Impact Report highlights the incredible difference that your support has made and the real and tangible impact that it has had, and continues to have, on the lives of our patients and their families.

We know that none of this important work would be possible without your kindness and generosity in 2021. Your support has enabled the Mater Foundation to continue to be ambitious, to strive for more and to be there for our patients when they need it most.