Mayo community gives back to one of their own

BELCARRA owes an awful lot to Breege Canavan and people like her. A stalwart of the Mayo community for over 30 years, she was left with life-changing injuries after suffering a severe stroke in October 2023.

For her to return to Belcarra, her home has had to undergo extensive and costly renovations. Though she has regained the ability to talk, she will require two carers at all times.

An online fundraiser only launched in January has already raised €78,000 for her. On July 4, they will make one more giant leap forward with a benefit dance in Breaffy House Hotel.

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The outpouring of generosity towards Breege and her family has been truly remarkable. But this is how they are in Belcarra.

A quick stroll through the picturesque mid-Mayo village tells you quite a lot about its people. Its facilities are the envy of many villages and even some towns.

Last week, the Breege Canavan Benefit Dance was officially launched in the village’s community centre, a vein that throbs in sync with the church, playground, handball alley, community pitch, shop, school and riverside walk, which are all within a stone’s throw of each other.

Though Breege was in Dublin at the time, her presence could still be felt. She is pictured in many of the numerous framed photos of official openings, award ceremonies and ribbon cuttings which adorn the walls of the community centre.

Belcarra only has these facilities because of Breege Canavan and others like her. Breege has served on virtually every committee in the village. She helped found the Belcarra Lotto, the financial lifeblood for various local projects since 1999.

Commitment

Her commitment to Belcarra is unwavering, her love for the community unquenchable. She still keeps tabs on local goings on and maintains good contact with the volunteers flying the flag in her absence.

“Bring me to Belcarra,” were her first words after regaining consciousness in the Beaumont Hospital in Dublin.

A natural-born administrator, Breege worked in legal practices for decades. First with Garvey, Smith and Flanagan, then, following their closure, with James Cahill Solicitors.

Her first priority was her husband, Michael, and her four children, Alan, Mark, Patrick Mark and Evan. After that, it was Belcarra.

“She started it while we were in national school, and it became a part of her,” her son Alan recalls.

“Most nights, she was doing meetings. She’d feed us, and then she’d be gone again.

“Anytime there was an opening of something, she made sure we were coming to it. She was proud of it, proud of anything we did here [Belcarra Community Centre], or if there was any little jobs for doing, she’d have us over fixing things and make sure things were right here. She’d make sure things were right here.”

Breege was as busy as she’d ever been when she suffered a stroke in her early 60s. A year-and-a-half after she last darkened the hall of her own house, she is finally ready to return to the place she’ll always call home.

“The first few months were really tough. The first few months were mental altogether,” says Alan.

Breege spent the first two months of her recovery in Dublin. She was then transferred to the Sacred Heart Hospital in Castlebar, where she spent eleven weeks.

“She was really weak at the time and had no power in the left and not much in the right at the start,” Alan explains. “She had a big operation to remove the side of the skull, she had that to deal with as well. That was hard on us too, going in and seeing that big change overnight, that she looked way different than the day before it happened. It wasn’t going to come back to normal anyway. We had to deal with that.

“She coped well,” Alan continues. “They looked after her really well in the Sacred Heart. They were mighty to her. She knew a lot of the staff. They were local ones. That helped her deal with things. The fact that she was local made it easy for us to pop in and out.

“My father, it's really hard on him. He was going in two to three times. Hard on the kids as well. She used to mind them after school and pick them up from trainings and stuff. She was coming to near retirement, and it was planned that she was going to look after the kids some days, so she has missed out on a lot of that. She was great with them.”

Retrofit

It soon became clear that life would not be the same again. While Breege has been away, her family have been lobbying the authorities for a proper care plan and retrofitting her house to accommodate her reduced mobility.

The first thing they needed to do was widen the doors of the house and make a driveway. Then one of the two vacant bedrooms was transformed into a wet room.

“You don’t feel spending a few pound. Wet floor, you are talking a couple of thousand,” Alan remarks.

Add in the cost of things like an electric wheelchair (almost €10,000), an electric hoist and one-handed kettles, and the costs balloon even further.

As soon as this became clear, ‘The Marys’ [Fitzgerald, Cannon and Prendergast] contacted the Canavans.

“They said they were going ahead with a fundraiser no matter what because they knew she was going to need lifetime care,” explains Alan.

“We couldn’t believe the first night, in tears all night watching the money going up.”

Not just in 20s or 50s, but 100s. Other contributions, such as three weeks’ lotto takings from Manulla FC and a card game in The Drum Inn, have all contributed to the large sum raised so far.

With Breege due home in the coming days, the next step is to make the benefit dance a success. Breaffy House are not charging for the event, nor are any of the musicians playing on the night.

“We still cannot believe what people are giving back,” says Alan. “It would open your eyes, if people were in the same position, what you might do for them.”

That’s Belcarra in a nutshell. They take care of their own.

The benefit dance in aid of Breege Canavan will take place in the Breaffy House Hotel on Friday, July 4. Tickets are €20 and will be sold door-to-door in the coming weeks and will be available at the door on the night. Donations can also be made on the ‘Support Breege Canavan’s Return Home’ page on https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-breege-canavans-return-home