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The Jack & Jill Children's Foundation

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Johnstown Manor, Johnstown, County Kildare - W91DYT2

The Jack & Jill Children's Foundation

Jack and Jill is a nationwide charity that funds and provides up to 100 hours per month of in-home nursing care and respite support to families caring for children, up to the age of six, with severe learning disability often associated with complex medical needs.

The Children we typically care for may be tube fed, oxygen dependent, may not sleep, take seizures, need a lot of medication and require around-the-clock care.

Understandably, their parents can be exhausted and need a break, which is where Jack and Jill comes in.

The Jack and Jill service operates 7 days a week, with no means test, no red tape and no waiting list.

Another key part of the service is end-of-life-care for all children up to the age six, irrespective of diagnosis, empowering parents to take their child home to die at this most difficult time.

In 2023, Jack and Jill supported 534 families across Ireland with in-home nursing care and respite support.

Today, there are 416 families under our care, and 3,040 families have been supported by Jack and Jill since 1997.

For more information see: www.jackandjill.ie

where your money goes

Every €18 raised through fundraising helps support 1 hour of in-home nursing care and respite for one of our amazing families. It will take approximately €7.5M to fund and provide our vital service in 2024. 

history

Jack and Jill was set up by two pioneering parents in 1997 - Mary Ann O’Brien and Jonathan Irwin - based on their family’s experience, caring for their son Jack at home with the help of local nurses, until he passed away at home in Kildare at the age of 22 months on 13th December 1997.

Jack’s bespoke home nursing care plan became the blueprint for over 3,040 children who’ve been supported by Jack and Jill since then, as Mary Ann and Jonathan vowed that no parents should have to walk this difficult care journey alone. They set about establishing a practical in-home nursing care and respite support model and raising funds to deliver it.