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THE CEO OF the Marie Keating Foundation has said she was “appalled” to discover scammers had posed as volunteers for the charity in recent weeks, going door to door asking for donations.
The foundation immediately contacted the Gardaí, who agreed to investigate the incident, and the Charities Regulator.
It also tried to inform the public of the illegitimate collectors via its social media channels.
The Marie Keating Foundation provides life-changing supports and funds to people experiencing cancer at all stages, including a comfort fund for people who are in financial difficulty as a result of their diagnosis.
“Members of the public called our office in Lucan at the end of November and informed us that unauthorised individuals were knocking on doors in a North Dublin suburb claiming to collect funds on our behalf,” she explained.
“We were deeply disheartened to learn of imposters collecting donations under the guise of supporting the Marie Keating Foundation. Our commitment to supporting people with cancer and their families in communities across Ireland is unwavering, and we’re horrified that these fraudsters would undermine the trust of our generous supporters,” Yeates said.
The charity is advising the public to take the following steps to make sure someone calling to their home seeking donations is actually a volunteer.
It is urging people to be “especially vigilant at this time of year” and to ensure that contributions go to legitimate causes.
In order to make sure a fundraiser is legitimate you can:
Yeates said that the foundation remains “vigilant to the very limited but still very distressing incidents of fraudulent fundraisers and remains steadfast in its dedication to transparency, accountability, and the wellbeing of the people we serve”.
The Marie Keating Foundation is almost wholly reliable on fundraised income.
Gives me a great idea for matching wedding flowers to bridesmaids dresses!!
@Brianog2- dont do that!! The food dye ends up staining dresses! I wanted royal blue flowers for my wedding & as royal blue doesn’t occur naturally in nature, white flowers dyed was an option but my florist freaked out & said no, she’d see too many dresses destroyed by people dying white flowers!
Thanks Emily
A far better way to get kids interested in science would be to involve some sort of explosion.
That’s safe and easy to do with some breadsoda and water.
And vinegar Dermot.
Mentos and coke either
I forgot the vinegar! Doh!
A nice idea is splitting the stems of the flower and putting half in one colour and half in another colour, its a little bit more impressive.
There are thousands of simple experiments to do with small kids, great for getting them interested in science.
I remember doing this experiment in 1st class many moons ago.
My science teacher did this with red dye in a geranium plant so you could see every stem and leaf highlighted in red- fantastic!
Getting my sons ‘hotwires’ and a ‘microscope set’ for xmas so they can experiment with technology and science. At 9 and 8 they should be old enough to do it themselves.
Oh that reminds me I forgot to get a chemistry set…
I put myself in hospital for 10 days with a chemistry set when I was a kid.Magnesium tape is a basterd when mixed with phos. Happy days indeed.Still have the scars.
*Not being sarcastic. Just keep an eye on the kid.Some of those chemicals can burn to the bone.
They are 8 and 9 but yes I will certainly keep an eye on them…
I have done this with kids at school , great experiment!
Oh my god I remember doing this when I was younger – can’t wait to get the kids to do it!
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