Ups and downs for the Rainbow Club in 2023

2023 proved to be a rollercoaster of a year for the Rainbow Club in Cork, as well as its founders.

Seven years ago, couple Karen and Jon O’Mahony set out to provide vital services to children with autism and their families — inspired by their own sons Stephen and Sean, both of whom have autism.

The Rainbow Club now supports more than 1,200 children and teenagers with autism, as well as their families every single week.

The Mahon-based charity is seen as a beacon of hope, providing respite and support services for children with autism, their siblings, teenagers growing up with autism, and their parents.

The Rainbow Club has been praised by politicians the length and breadth of the country, and has even inspired the establishment of a similar service in the south east of Ireland.

During 2023, the charity was involved in a number of major fundraisers — including the star-studded Fairways Fore Hope golf tournament in Adare Manor — and hosted Government leaders, ministers, as well as a host of local politicians all keen to offer their support and influence to the club.

The Rainbow Club also increased its offering and expanded some of its programmes, while taking on more children.

However, the charity also had to come to terms with a cancer diagnosis for its fearless leader, Karen, and the deaths of family members close to both Karen and Jon.

Speaking to The Echo, Karen said: “2023 was a very busy year for Rainbow Club.”

In October 2022, then taoiseach Micheál Martin revealed that a permanent premises for the Rainbow Club had been identified, with the help of the HSE and Cork City Council.

The new premises will mean the Rainbow Club can apply for a wide range of grants and subsidies, now that it has its own address.

It will also save the Cork charity a whopping €8,000 a month on renting modular units, money that can be pumped back into services.

However, more than one year after Mr Martin’s announcement, the Rainbow Club is still waiting to move into its own dedicated premises.

Karen explained that the charity spent much of 2023 engaging with Government ministers, TDs, and councillors to discuss funding for the charity, its potential to provide respite services alongside the HSE, and the need for its new home.

“We engaged hugely with Minister [Anne] Rabbitte, Minister [Michael] McGrath, along with HSE to try to discuss funding and the possibility that Rainbow Club would facilitate respite for the HSE,” she said.

“We also worked on the new home with local TDs and Minister Rabbitte, Minister McGrath, the Tánaiste, Terry Shannon, Mary Rose Desmond, and Padraig O’Sullivan — all pushing for us to secure the new home.

“We have increased our offering and expanded programs, and we also welcomed new staff as well as volunteers with disabilities themselves,” she added.

Karen explained that the Rainbow Club also remained busy during 2023, trying to raise awareness about the club’s support services and to secure funding through donations.

“We worked on PR and tried to secure support,” she said.

“We had a big event in the Fairways Fore Hope, in Adare, that raised €50,000.

“We also worked with the Community Foundation’s Toy Show Appeal, Murphy family Trust, National Lottery, Orstead, ESB Generations, [and] Bank Of Ireland — who funded many programs here in 2023 and gave so many of our young people the opportunity to thrive with the right support.”

However, not all funding applications were successful which was disappointing for the club, its staff, and volunteers.

Not ones to settle for defeat, the club kept going — offering vital support to those in need.

“We were welcoming new children and their families each month, to give support where we could,” Karen said.

“We ran lots of programs to help parents and siblings also.

“We also welcomed members from Cork Mental Health to our horticulture area to help grow lovely vegetables, fruit, and flowers each Friday — we really liked this partnership.

“Our own events and raffles were a great success and we received lots of help,” Karen added.

“We also increased our staff and volunteer numbers.”

Reflecting on 2023, Karen said that the Fairways Fore Hope event had to be one of the highlights for the Rainbow Club.

The event saw actors, former sports stars, and a host of other celebrities descend on Adare Manor for a star-studded, private golf tournament. It raised €50,000 for the Rainbow Club.

Karen also praised the impact of funding partners who helped get programmes up and running at the charity this year, especially the new respite service.

Karen also highlighted the main challenge the Rainbow Club faced in 2023, and every year previous — funding.

“The ongoing challenge that we have is funding,” she said.

“We currently get €55,000 from the HSE in a grant aid, and now the funding for respite supports, but that doesn’t support the club at all — just respite staff costs etc.

“Funding is always a challenge and trying to get funding applications over the line.

“We don’t have resources to be able to employ someone to do that for us so we rely on volunteers, but we still can’t secure them.

“We rely heavily on fundraising and good will from the public,” Karen added.

One such event was a table quiz, organised by Lorna and Richard Hogan, which raised a whopping €12,000 for the charity.

“The Rainbow Club was blown away by the amount raised at the quiz. We are so grateful to Lorna and Richard for their support and hard work in raising such a phenomenal amount. They are a beautiful family and we are privileged to know them,” Karen said.

In early 2023, Karen was diagnosed with breast cancer and was forced to take a step back from the day-to-day running of the club as she underwent treatment.

However, she was as busy as ever behind the scenes.

“This year has been very challenging for me,” she admitted.

“It was really difficult being unwell and worrying about the staff and income.

“I was very frustrated with it all and I love Rainbow Club.

“I missed being there every day supporting everyone.

“I found that even working from home was difficult — it isolated me, which I didn’t like, but I knew I couldn’t be at work physically due to my immune system and treatment.

“We lost Jon’s mum the day before I had my first surgery, so that was very hard for Jon, and my mum was very good to stay with me so Jon could grieve and go to the funeral,” Karen added.

“My own mum got unwell in May and I couldn’t visit her either, and then she passed the day I started my radium.

“So the year has been very challenging, but I feel better times are ahead now.

“I have to focus on improving my health and looking after myself more after cancer and try to balance my life.

“The journey through breast cancer was my journey and I did it the way I needed to,” Karen said.

“I had a great support network and that has helped me hugely.”

Karen wrote a blog on her own cancer journey, updating everyone on how she was doing.

She said that took the pressure off Jon and their daughter Molly, who were being asked about Karen’s wellbeing on a regular basis.

“It was hard for them to talk about it so many times each day, and the blog helped them massively.”

Karen explained that the physical and emotional challenges that cancer brought on were very hard to deal with, but that she had huge support from her husband, family, and the wider Rainbow Club family to help her through it.

“Losing my hair was very hard for me, but I soon got comfortable with it as I knew it was important and part of my process,” she recalled.

“I put on weight and I still have breathlessness and a cough that I can’t get rid of.

“I couldn’t see the children [at the Rainbow Club], get my hugs from them, or meet with their parents.

“That was very hard and I was also very conscious that many of the children wouldn’t recognise me, which was very hard,” she added.

“I had days I just felt so tired and sleep was hard. I also have problems with my right arm. I had physio for that after two surgeries and the removal of Lymph nodes, so it affects which side I sleep on, and it is taking time to build all the arm back up again.”

Speaking about the care she received in hospital and the support from her family and the Rainbow Club, Karen said: “Jon and I have a very close relationship and that has always gotten me through everything — he is an amazing husband, my best friend, and he has supported our family through this also.

“He and Molly — along with the amazing staff we have — looked after Rainbow Club so well in my absence, and all that time he was also navigating the journey, looking at me throughout the treatment, and going through all that came with it.

“The care I received from all the staff at the Orchid in CUH — surgeon Deirdre O’Hanlon, oncologist Prof Connolly and her team, and Dr McGibney in radiology and her team — have all been amazing to me and my care was exceptional from them all.”

Karen explained that, despite a difficult year, she and the Rainbow Club are looking to the future with optimism.

While the charity is still yet to hear about their new home, they are hopeful of good news around the turn of the new year.

“The new home will be vital for us providing a bigger facility with everything we need under one roof, a building that will cater for all the children’s needs,” she explained.

“Having our own lease opens us up to funding and, possibly, securing funding we couldn’t before because of the lease issue.”

Karen added that having their own dedicated premises would allow the Rainbow Club to establish the first of its kind centre, with a universal autism model and holistic approach.

“We are hoping the Government will help us to replicate our service — many families around the country need a Rainbow Club.

“Our hope for 2024 is that we have our new home site secured and can access capital funding to help adapt it to our needs.

“We also hope to continue discussions with HSE on how we can get more support from them, but also work with them on service provision.

“We would like to expand staff where we will need them, get our Autism Studies course up and going, and offer more to our young people.

“I am hoping that my breathing will improve and the struggle with exertion will improve for me, so I can work daily and not impact me physically during the day,” Karen added.

“I will be spending more time with Jon and my family. I know I will still have hospital appointments, but managing all that will also need to be done. I want to improve my struggles with my physical changes so that will be a priority for me personally.

“Designing, planning, and getting the new home will be a huge project and I want to be well for that too.”

The Rainbow Club received huge support from a wide range of people, clubs, organisations, and groups during 2023 — and Karen was keen to thank them for their help during 2023.

“To everyone who has supported us with donations for our events, raffles, for the rooms with toys etc, the parents, grandparents and relations who support us, thank you,” she said.

“To the many businesses in Cork city and county that also hold fundraisers and events for us — the schools, local sports clubs, local groups, the Mahon Community Centre, and our friends around the country and abroad — thank you so much for believing in us, but most importantly in our young people.

“They will benefit from the support we give them at Rainbow Club, the support that wraps around them and their family, a community that believes in them, sees their ability and potential, a community that supports them and their needs.

“Without the support Rainbow Club gets, these families wouldn’t have it — so thank you all for helping us improve the lives of so many wonderful autistic individuals.”