A CHEQUE for £3,530 was presented to the Carlow Kilkenny Home Care Team at a presentation in The Manor House, Market Square, Bagenalstown, on Wednesday night last.

The money was raised through the 7th annual Christmas Day sponsored swim in which 26 local people participated.

Mr. Ian Wilson from St. Luke's Hospital, Kilkenny, chairman of the Carlow/Kilkenny Committee, accepted the cheque from Mrs. Brenda Cummins, on behalf of the swimmers.

Mrs. Cummins is daughter of Billy and the late Vera Power, St. Brigid's Crescent, Bagenalstown. It was when Mrs. Power died from cancer in November 1993, having been nursed in her final illness by the Home Care Team, that Vera asked her friend Mrs. Mary Foster, Kilree, to organise an event as a sign of appreciation of the team.

Mary Foster and the Power family took up the idea and the annual Christmas Day Swim came into being.

Mr. Wilson, in accepting the cheque, thanked everyone involved. He gave an outline of the running costs of the Home Care service in Carlow/Kilkenny.

It takes £150,000 per annum to run the service, whereby nurses provide 24 hour care for the terminally ill in their own home as well as in hospital rooms at St. Luke's County Hospital, Kilkenny and the District Hospital, Carlow.

He said a grant of £5,000 is provided from the South Eastern Health Board, while £30,000 comes from Central Funds such as the money raised through Daffodil Day and from the Irish Cancer Society.