Top Oil and Fuel the Care supports more than 400 sick children and their families across Ireland requiring travel to hospital appointments.
Children’s Health Foundation is delighted to celebrate “Fuel the Care Day” with Top Oil as part of a partnership launched in 2022 to support sick children and their families attending Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin, Temple Street, Tallaght and Connolly.
Top Oil’s Fuel the Care programme provides fuel gift vouchers to families to help lessen the financial burden of travelling to receive medical care for their children. To date, Fuel the Care has helped lessen the financial burden for families in Ireland. In total, 411 patient families travelled more than 55,000 kilometres in the past year in Ireland to attend appointments across Children’s Health Ireland sites.
Since launching last year, in collaboration with Children’s Health Foundation and the Children’s Health Ireland Medical Social Work Departments, Top Oil’s Fuel the Care initiative has supported more than one family with a sick child each day in Ireland. Thanks to the partnership with Top Oil, the vouchers have bridged the distance between home and hospital.
To further support this meaningful programme, Top Oil provides a Fuel the Care pump at select sites, where one cent from every litre purchased is donated to the Children’s Health Foundation.
You can access these pumps, at no extra cost, at the following Top Oil locations:
- Top Oil Kilkenny Depot, Hebron Industrial Estate, Hebron Road, Co. Kilkenny
- Top Oil Ballina Depot, Crossmolina Road, Ballina, Co. Mayo
- Top Oil Service Station Cobh Cross, Junction 3, Carrigtwohill, Cobh Cross, Co. Cork
- Top Oil Newhall Service Station, Naas Enterprise Park, Newhall, Naas, Co. Kildare
The fuel gift vouchers donated by Top Oil are used to help sick children across Ireland – children like Izzy, who lives in Wicklow and must attend for two weeks at a time in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin resulting in her family making multiple trips to be with her during her treatment.
“It can be extremely difficult to juggle a sick child in the hospital and look after your family at home,” says Emma Hayward, mother to four-year-old Izzy who was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. “Having a sick child in hospital is a huge financial pressure on families, that sometimes may be overlooked. Having the Fuel the Care programme has massively helped ease the burden during such a difficult time.”
Irving Oil – Top Oil’s Canadian based operator which also operates the Irving Oil Whitegate Refinery in County Cork – has run its Fuel the Care programme since 2002 and surpassed a major milestone this year, with 100,000 families supported across Canada, the U.S. and Ireland, thanks in part to a highly successful launch of the program in Ireland last year.
“We are thankful for the generous support of our customers over the past year that has allowed us to help families in Ireland through Fuel the Care and our partner hospitals,” says Top Oil Senior Manager Clíona Ní Mhurchú. “Our team is proud of what was accomplished this past year to support families they need it the most.”
In addition to the fuel gift vouchers and to celebrate Fuel the Care, Top Oil also paid for all patient parking in Children’s Health Ireland at Crumlin on October 16th. Volunteers from the company were onsite to let families know the parking fee was on Top Oil.
“Top Oil has been so generous since the beginning of our partnership and their continuous donation of fuel vouchers has made a huge impact on the lives of families attending Children’s Health Ireland hospitals and urgent care centres,” says Hugh Kane, Children’s Health Foundation Interim Chief Executive. “This has helped ease the pressure of travelling from all around the country to appointments with their sick children. Top Oil and their customers are helping provide these supports for sick children and their families.”
For more information on Top Oil’s “Fuel the Care” programme, visit https://www.top.ie/fuelthecare/.