Jack and Jill Foundation holding 20th-anniversary Tea Party in Thomastown this week

A nurse based in Abbeyleix has described how one man’s vision has helped over 80 families in Carlow-Kilkenny with very young sick children.

Mary Joe Guilfoyle was a full-time nurse at Temple Street Hospital in 1998 when she was recruited to work in the Jack and Jill Foundation.

She says she was deeply moved by the story of Jonathan Irwin who had seen his son, Jack, die aged 18 months.

Mary Joe was speaking ahead of the charity’s tea party in Mount Juliet this Friday. It’s just one event to mark Jack and Jill’s 20th anniversary.

The nurse says one of the first people the charity helped came from Kilkenny