There has been a €1m boost for cancer care in Co Cork.

Construction jobs are now assured as the long-established Cork Charity which runs Saint Luke's Home for Older People is throwing its weight behind the new Marymount Hospice construction project with a donation of €1 million

Saint Luke's Home, Mahon, Cork, which runs a residential care facility and a day-care centre, has announced that it is making a donation of €1 million over the coming five year period towards the capital costs of the construction of a new a Day Care Unit for palliative care at the new Marymount Hospice which is being built at Curraheen, Cork. The two organisations will also share expertise and educational resources for the betterment of care services in the region.

The President of St Luke's Home, Bishop Paul Colton said that this is part of the Board of Saint Luke's commitment to helping more people than it is currently able to support.

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"This donation and collaboration with Marymount Hospice will be good for the two organisations and for the people we are trying to help. Both entities are to the fore nationally in what we do.

"We are committed to expanding our work as a charity," said Bishop Colton.

"We have invested a lot in the last five years in improving the facilities at Saint Luke's Home.

"We will soon start building work on our new Education Centre which will be fully operational in 2011.

"In our donation to Marymount and in the programme that lies ahead we are committing ourselves to an ambitious programme which will cost about €6 million.

"Obviously I want to thank, in advance, all our supporters who will help us to achieve these targets for the benefit of older people, dementia sufferers, and now, those with life-limiting illnesses," he said.

The contribution to Marymount Hospice's Day Care Unit of €200k per annum for a five year period has been warmly welcomed by Tony Moloney, Chairman of St. Patrick's Hospital/Marymount Hospice.

"This most generous contribution by St. Luke's will go a long way towards providing excellent day care services for people of all ages and diagnoses in need of specialist palliative care.

"The new Hospice is due to open in July 2011, so this support could not have come at a better time."

(BMcC/GK)