THOUSANDS turned out to say a final farewell to a courageous mother-of-five whose battle with leukaemia has inspired almost £18,000 worth of charity donations.
More than 2,000 people turned out to pay their respects at the funeral of Deirdre Angland in north London.
And within a week of that service taking place, at St Sebastian and Pancreas Church in Kingsbury, more than £14,000 had been donated to a Just Giving site set up in the 43-year-old’s name.
To date that fund has reached £17, 465 and is still growing.
“Dee was the kind of person who touched the lives of everyone she met,” her brother Kieran Barry told The Irish Post, “so this fundraising seems to have allowed people to show what she meant to them, that seems to be why it continues to grow and that’s a great legacy for Dee.”
Born in north London to parents Tom and Kathleen Barry, hailing, respectively, from Ballybunion and Portmagee in Co Kerry, Deirdre was the eldest of six children.
After attending the Sacred Heart secondary school in Harrow, she went on to become a travel agent, working with Tara Travel in Cricklewood for many years, where she fulfilled her dreams of travelling the world.
Deirdre later married husband Michael, whose parents hail from counties Mayo and Cork. Eventually Deirdre took on the full time role of mother to their five children – Tom, now 14, Liam, 13, Megan, 9, Michael, 6 and two-year-old Jack – which kept her a well-known face among the Irish dancing and GAA communities across London.
So when diagnosed with leukaemia more than a year ago, brave Deirdre refused to be beaten by the devastating disease, according to her family, who claim she ‘lived for her babies’.
She was instead determined to fight the cancer in her blood, while undergoing treatment at Hammersmith Hospital’s Haematology Department.
“She was very strong, it was a tough year, but she refused to stop fighting,” Deirdre’s sister Fiona Feeley (nee Barry) told The Irish Post.
“Dee was positive the whole way through.”
Over the months the unwavering support of hospital staff was matched by that of Deirdre’s friends and, in particular, her family – who were quick to respond when a bone marrow transplant was needed.
Each of Deirdre’s siblings - Kieran, Thomas, Denis, Fiona and Siobhán - were tested for a bone marrow match for the transplant.
To the family’s delight the doctors found Denis, 36, was a 100 per cent match.
The transplant was made and the operation successful, however it only fought of the disease for a short while.
Deirdre finally lost her battle with leukaemia on July 14.
Her death sent ripples through the Irish community in Kingsbury, where thousands came out to pay their respects at her funeral last month, at which £6,000 of the charity fund was raised.
But as Deirdre’s devastated family attempted to come to terms with her passing they decided to fulfil one of her final wishes – to raise money for the hospital department which had treated her ‘so well’.
“Dee was always saying she wanted to do a Just Giving page for the hospital,” her brother Thomas said.
“When she went in for her second round of chemotherapy she said ‘I am going to start fundraising as soon as I get out of here’, as she wanted to give back to the department in that way.”
He explained: “She never managed to do that, so us siblings and her husband Mikey decided we should start the page. We felt like we had to do that for Dee, as it was her wish, so we set it up the night before the funeral and added it to the mass booklet at the last minute.”
Deirdre’s brother Denis added: “It’s had a huge response ever since, it’s quite amazing how much has been raised in such a short space of time. We just can’t thank everyone enough for all of their support, in all the many ways, over this period. It means so much to us all.”
Deirdre leaves behind husband Michael, children Tom, Liam, Megan, Michael and Jack, parents Tom and Kathleen Barry and siblings Kieran, Thomas, Denis, Fiona and Siobhán.
She also leaves 16 nephews and nieces, with a seventeenth due to be born into the family on Christmas Day.
To donate to the Deirdre Angland fundraising page visit https://www.justgiving.com/remember/137830/Dee-Angland
Fundraising
Currently £17,465 in funds had been donated on the Remembering Deirdre Angland Just Giving Page.
The page went live on Wednesday, July 23, the evening before the funeral of Deirdre Angland, who was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) in May 2013.
The money raised will support the Leuka charity’s work at Hammersmith Hospital’s Haematology Department.
Leuka researches the causes of, pioneers new treatment for and helps save the lives of people with leukaemia and other blood cancers (see www.leuka.org.uk).
Deirdre’s family hope to continue to raise money for the charity via the Just Giving site, and are planning a specific fundraising event which people of all ages can join for later this year.
See The Irish Post for further details on that event.
See More: Deirdre Angland, Hammersmith Hospital, Leukaemia
