The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Staff at University Hospital Limerick and across UL Hospitals Group, including Ennis, are getting ready to hit the road for their annual charity 5k. This year their efforts will benefit Friends of Ghana.
The event, on Friday, August 25, will see staff of all abilities taking part in the 5k run and walk around the Dooradoyle – Raheen area of Limerick City which, now in its third year, has become an annual event at UHL.
This year, the event is in aid of the Friends of Ghana , an NGO formed last year by UL Hospitals Group and its academic partner the University of Limerick to deliver medical training programmes in the remote Upper West Region of Ghana.
A team from UL Hospitals Group and UL visited Ghana recently to deliver a programme in pre-hospital emergency care to 80 health workers in the Region and further programmes are planned.
Promoting exercise in the workplace is part of UL Hospital Group’s commitment to health and wellbeing, a commitment formalised in the publication of the Group’s Healthy Ireland Implementation Plan 2016-2019.
Hospital groups, including UL Hospitals Group, have adopted plans in line with the national strategy to promote health and wellbeing. The UL Hospitals Healthy Ireland Implementation Plan 2016-2019 identifies 60 priority actions to do just that for the c 380,000 people it serves and the 3,300 staff it employs in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary.
Laura Tobin is Project Lead for Healthy Ireland at UL Hospitals Group. She commented, “We have been holding ‘Meet & Train’ evenings every Monday for the past number of weeks and are looking forward to the event on August 25. We are delighted with the support so far from all of our staff who have been training hard. Also the involvement of our local athletic clubs and Run Ireland is great to see.
“Of course, the main objective is to get runners and walkers of all abilities involved . Last year we had almost 200 participants including our own staff, retired members of staff and some members of the public as well from the area. We are hoping for a great turnout again this year.”
Members of the public are very welcome to join the run and can register on the evening at the main reception at UHL from 5pm to 6pm. The race starts at 6.30pm.
The run and walk will be chipped and timed, with each participant receiving a specially designed t-shirt and, on completion, a medal.
There are six hospitals in the UL Hospitals Group, University Hospital Limerick, Nenagh Hospital, Ennis Hospital , Croom Orthopaedic Hospital, University Maternity Hospital Limerick and St. John’s Hospital (voluntary).
