Local family backs Hospice campaign with poignant video

A local family has backed the campaign to save the South Westmeath Hospice with a poignant video recounting the experience of how it held a family wedding in the facility.

Emma Heavin said the South Westmeath Hospice had been “a home from home” for her family after her beloved Dad, Liam, from Clonbrusk, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2018, and she added that it would be “criminal” if the facility is lost to the local population.

Liam Heavin passed away in September 23, 2018, and his only daughter, Emma, is the latest in a long line of local families to share their heartbreaking stories online as part of the #SaveOurHospice campaign.

The Heavin family used the sitting room in the Hospice for Emma’s wedding, and she recalled the emotional moment when her Dad was wheeled into the wedding venue in a “specialised wheelchair” by a nurse alongside his beloved only daughter.

A tearful Emma said she got to experience “that walking into a room with my Dad that I always dreamed of as a little girl” and she broke down as she recalled how, as an only daughter she was her father’s “shadow, I really was his little girl, so I imagine it meant everything to be able to do that.”

You can watch the video here:

Describing the South Wesmeath Hospice as being “so much more than just providing comfort to the patient in terms of pain medication” Ms. Heavin said it would be “criminal” if the facility were to be lost to local families.

“They can’t let that happen,” she added.