A Carlow woman is volunteering to help local families with a loved one in hospital.
Current public health restrictions don’t allow hospital patients to have any visitors on the wards.
However, people are allowed to drop items off at a hospital’s main desk to be passed on to a patient by staff.
Rachel Foley is bringing in packages from all over Carlow to hospital, to save other families the journey.
Rachel’s own father is an in-patient with dementia, and she says it can be tough to drop off his things without seeing him.
“It’s really emotionally draining, to go up to the counter with a bag knowing your loved one is upstairs and you can’t get to them” she explains. “You can understand why those restrictions are there for all of our safety, but it’s still difficult. I’m going back and forth all the time so it’s something I could do to help.”
