In my school, all second years must take part in an action project for our CSPE class as part of our Junior Certificate course. My friends and I came up with the idea to support the Irish Haemophilia Society and to raise awareness of haemophilia and bleeding disorders in girls as I attend an all-girls school. This event is very important to me as my brother has haemophilia and I want to help and assist funding for the Society.
My class decided that a good way to do this would be to have a bake sale and a raffle. In preparation for this, we put up posters around the school halls and went into each class announcing when and why the bake sale was taking place and requesting baking contributions. The class was split into different groups to organise the event. I was in the research group and gave a presentation to my class on haemophilia. The class all contributed to making four large hampers for the raffle. All week people volunteered to sell raffle tickets at lunch-time.
On the day of the bake sale and raffle, we spent the morning collecting cakes from everyone who had baked and before lunch we went down to the hall to set up. We had hundreds of cakes and Nina had given me lots of haemophilia literature to give out to everyone.
The bake sale and raffle was a huge success. Hundreds of raffle tickets were sold and all the cakes were gone by the end. The hall was crowded with girls and staff and everyone was admiring the hampers. After lunch, we pulled the tickets for the raffle. The people who won were delighted. We counted the money and were delighted that we had raised €600. We were delighted with this amount and were so glad we could help the society and educate girls in my school on bleeding disorders. Overall it was a huge success and I’m glad we got the chance to do it.
As part of our project is to raise awareness and provide information, my nanny Margaret Dunne visited the school to give a talk to my class on haemophilia and the work of the Society. It was very successful and everyone had lots of questions. Hopefully, people understand more about the condition now.
Hannah Byrne