Doing a Cork ARC collection ‘is like therapy to me - it helped me grieve’

Frances Fields is a real lady.

“Sit down there and I’ll get you a cup of coffee and a nice cake,” she tells me.

I am here to talk to Frances about her support for the coffee morning fundraiser held at ARC House Cork recently, which was run by enthusiastic volunteers like her.

“She calls herself the ‘bucket lady!” interjects Colleen, who is Frances’s sister.

“I do!” says Frances, laughing.

Frances is Flag Day Ambassador for Cork ARC in Cobh.

Colleen is not only sister to Frances, she is chauffeur and administrator too, helping her to collect much-needed funds for the valuable and essential free services offered by Cork ARC for cancer patients and their families.

“I am inspired by Frances,” says Colleen. “She does so much for Cork ARC, delivering the little purple charity boxes to local shops in east Cork and surrounds, standing out in all weathers for flag day, and rowing in, encouraging other willing volunteers to get involved collecting for Cork ARC.

“And, of course, shaking her bucket on the street along with kind people she has recruited!”

Frances has organised her timetable for the forthcoming activities.

“Our main bucket collection for Cork ARC is on Friday. June 20 in Cobh,” she says.

“I deliver the buckets to eight shops in Cobh. The support is always overwhelming.

“Also, the purple house boxes for Cork ARC are delivered to 24 pharmacies and shops around east Cork.

“Transition students are very helpful and turn out on the day to collect money for Cork ARC.”

The buckets, when collected, are always heavy.

“Sometimes, I find them heavy to carry!” says Frances. “I love it!

“The buckets fill up fast. I get huge satisfaction from that. I collect four or five at a time.

“Since 2018, I am known as the ‘bucket lady!’

Frances is a wonderful supporter of Cork ARC, and a great lady to chat.

“I love to chat,” she says. “When I am standing outside the supermarket or the local shop with my collection bucket, people often stop to chat with me.

“They tell me their cancer story, they talk about their journey, about their cancer treatment. We find that we have something in common. Complete strangers become friends.”

Frances lost her husband Denis to cancer in December, 2015.

When he was ill, the couple came across other helpful volunteers for Cork ARC.

“We were randomly handed a leaflet which I kept,” recalls Frances.

“We found out we could talk to someone at Cork ARC, and we found out about their wonderful support services.

“Denis was sick for four years and he availed of their services, which provided huge solace to us both. We were so grateful.”

Frances sought a source of therapy after she lost her husband.

“Collecting money for Cork ARC became therapy for me,” she says. “That is how I coped with my grief.”

Frances re-invented herself.

“I became the ‘bucket lady!”

She is a shrewd lady.

“We started small and then expanded out to Carrigtwohill and Glanmire. I am the only bucket collector for Cork ARC.”

She is probably the only bucket lady who has her own personal chauffeur too!

“Colleen is a great back up for me,” says Frances.

“She drives me to all the different locations when I deliver and collect charity boxes and buckets.

“Doing the rosters, etc, takes a bit of time. I organise about 40 people to do the collections for Cork ARC.

“In September, we collect at Fitzpatrick’s Glanmire, at Little Island, and outside the Credit Union in Douglas.

“I have to be well organised to delegate the volunteers to various locations. Otherwise, I’d be killed!

“Colleen’s help is most welcome. I couldn’t do without her.”

Colleen, like her sister, possesses good people skills - as well as other useful skills.

“She is a great woman on the computer!” says Frances. “She is high-tech!”

Frances is a great lady to socialise.

“I just love the social side when I am out and about with my bucket collecting money for Cork ARC.

“People see the sign and they stop and chat to me. It’s lovely.”

Do people still carry cash and coins with them?

“You’d be surprised,” says Frances. “People always seem to have small change in their purses or in their pockets.”

A little means a lot.

“It all amounts up,” says Frances. “Every contribution makes a difference.

“I find collecting for Cork ARC is very worthwhile. It is something that I’d never thought I would do.”

Volunteering is something many people find worthwhile. It is beneficial to the doer for a whole host of reasons, including improving health and happiness, stress reduction, combating depression, and providing a sense of purpose.

Volunteering connects you directly with those around you and is particularly beneficial for the community and sense of belonging.

“Our volunteers are essential to help us provide free services to people going through a cancer journey and their families. We have a great bunch of people supporting us,” says Karen Dolman, House, Cork ARC head of fund-raising

“Frances and Colleen are two of our wonderful team of volunteers who support us inside and outside of Cork ARC.”

Frances lives near another kind volunteer.

“Breda Donovan, who is my neighbour, made a cake for Denis’s birthday. I opened the fridge and there it was,” says Frances.

“We were otherwise occupied when he was so sick at the time. We had forgotten all about his birthday and we had nothing for him.

“Only for Breda, we’d have had nothing. The beautiful cake lifted Denis’s spirits.”

Breda lifted everyone’s spirits that day.

“I asked Breda, how did she know that it was Denis’s birthday,” says Frances. “She didn’t know. It was just a kind gesture on her part. She was so good to us, and still is.

“Breda said, ‘If I had known it was Denis’s birthday, I’d have made a better cake!’”

These are the people who keep the worthy Cork ARC operation going.

People like Breda, people like Colleen, the people who step up on flag days, the people who accept the purple charity boxes, the transition year students who get stuck in, the service users at Cork ARC who prompt Frances to freely give of her time, to offer her people skills, her kindness, and her lively chat to strangers on the street who respond in kind.

Frances is at the heart of it.

“And Colleen is my navigator,” she says.

Frances has benefitted greatly from her ‘therapy’.

“It’s something I thought I’d never be doing,” she admits.

Long may this great lady, the ‘bucket lady’, continue doing her great work among her friends and caring community.

Cork ARC offers information, counselling, complementary therapies, and group programmes for people with cancer and their families.

Sarsfield Road, Wilton, Cork, T12 EW9A

Call: 021-427 6688