‘Counselling helped me after masectomy’

LEGaSi is a five-year funding initiative which has transformed community services in places like Rathcoole in north Belfast.

Jillian Kettley is four years after a cancer diagnosis and relied on the Listening Ear counselling service established by the international philanthropic intervention in the estate.

She said: “It scares me to think about what possibly could have happened if it had not been there because there really is not anything out there.”

She had received a period of counselling before, but said she was left to cope during her lengthy road back to health.

She added: “It takes a long time to recover.

“You are not the same person and your mental health is never the same again, your whole outlook is never the same again.

“Listening Ear helped me to come back and find a little bit of the Jillian before cancer - to make life worthwhile again.”

The programme is supported by the Cooperation Ireland peace building charity, which helps promote grassroots initiatives like LEGaSi (Learning, Engagement, Growth and Succession Intervention).

It received money from the Ireland Funds, a global philanthropic network, as part of a one million US dollars (£760,000) investment and was designed from the bottom up.

Cooperation Ireland chief executive Peter Sheridan said it was intended to identify the next generation of leaders within the Protestant, unionist and loyalist community and try to build their capacity and knowledge base.

He said: “A lot of good results came out of it.

“Even in some of the more challenging times around parades and so on and the bonfires people from those communities have gained a better understanding and were able to mediate better.”