Rose ready for the Longford Sleep Out

Helping out the less well off is something Rose Egan knows a lot about. On Good Friday she will participate in an all night fundraiser.

The Sleep Out for Simon takes place at Longford Rugby Club on Good Friday April 7. It's a public fundraiser to help emergency homeless services in the region.

The event will see members of the community spreading awareness and raising money for the club and the local service. Among the participants this year will be Rose Egan.
“I just like to help out in any way I can,” Rose told the Leader, “I like helping people, people who are in need. It makes me feel good.”

This is Rose's latest way of lending a helping hand to the less fortunate in a life filled with such selflessness.

Having worked as a baby nurse in St Christopher's Hospital in Longford, Rose married in 1975 and had sons Mícheál and John in 1981 and 1982. After raising her children she returned to work in 1999 as a home help until her retirement. She continues to visit the elderly in a local nursing home and accompanies them on trips.

Rose became involved in a mental health charity having seen people suffer from serious depression and then go on to lead full and happy lives: “People suffering from mental health issues and depression can feel very isolated,” she explains, “and yet the simple act of sitting with them can make all the difference in the world.”
Rose says there have been many improvements in society's attitude to mental health: “With the Longford Mental Health Association we go and visit people in their houses and they love to see us, and it means so much.

“There was a time when people wouldn't talk to you if a family member was in a mental hospital, but we are more open now.
“I have noticed that in mental hospitals you don't see many visitors, there is an awful stigma to it. A little visit doesn't take much.”

Rose also volunteers with the Longford branch of the Alzheimer's Society and helps in the local church: “I'm involved in the Innyside Singers in Ballymahon, and we sing for pleasure and sometimes at different occasions.
“ I love cooking and baking and I am a grandmother of two and I help out when they need me. I have good health, great friends of 50 years who mean a lot to me.”
Rose says volunteering improves her life for the better and recommends that everyone should do their bit:

“Volunteering makes your life. It makes you feel good in so many ways and I've made so many good friends. The tiniest act can have a huge impact on the life of another and it's a wonderful way of bringing people together from all walks of life.
“It's also a great way to broaden your mind and you learn not to see someone with a difficulty, instead you see somebody rising above their difficulties.

“To know that somebody cares for you is one of life's greatest gifts.”
The Sleep Out will take place at Longford Rugby Club on Good Friday and Rose hopes she will make a night of it: “I'll do a good bit of it anyway, please God.”
The Kenagh lady is looking forward to another gathering later this year: “I am going to Fatima in May. I started that in 1999. I loved organising trips.

“ I used to arrange three trips a year. I would arrange a religious trip at the beginning of the year, a historic one in July and a banquet at Christmas. We are really looking forward to our trip to Fatima in May.”
Midlands Simon supports people who find themselves in difficult situations.
The Midlands Simon Community/Longford Rugby Club's Sleep Out 2023 takes place on Good Friday Night, April 7.