Queen’s Birthday Honours: Fundraiser who helps sick children tells of pride at BEM honour

Gerald Degnan from Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, set up a foundation which has helped thousands of hospitalised children by giving them gifts or sending them and their families on trips.

Mr Degnan originally set up the Eilish Degnan Cancer Foundation 13 years ago in memory of his mother who fought stomach cancer for 15 years.

However, he soon became involved in fundraising for sick children and it has been renamed the Eilish Degnan Children’s Foundation.

He said: “When my mother passed away I had been fundraising for a year, and that was supposed to be that. But then there was an appeal on TV for a wee boy who was terminally ill. We became involved in that and sent him and his family to Disneyland Paris.

“After that people kept saying do it again, do it again. I work full-time but decided to keep it going. It has all just snowballed from there.

Mr Degnan (pictured) added: “I don’t know how I manage to fit it all in. I make a joke of it by saying I’m single with no kids, if I was married I probably wouldn’t be allowed to put the time into it.

“If I did stop it I would always be thinking that I’ve let children down.

“Coming up to certain times of the year, the kids in the hospital, the staff, they know us so well and they know in advance what we will be doing and will be expecting us up there. I would feel I would be letting the children down if I wasn’t doing it and I can’t bear that.

“My reward for doing this is when I get the letters from the children or staff at the hospital. You can sit back with a cup of tea and say we’ve really made a difference to some child.”

Mr Degnan has been awarded the BEM for services to patients and their families at the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

He said: “I still can’t really take it in. I am totally gobsmacked.”