# Pharma company makes €250,000 donation

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/01/01/pharma-company-makes-e250000-donation/
- Published: 2020-01-01T14:59:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Irish charity Barretstown, which offers free, specially designed camps and programmes
for children and their families living with a serious illness, has received a donation
of €250,000 from a pharmaceutical company.**

**Vertex Foundation**, the charitable arm of US pharmaceutical company Vertex, provided
the donation for a special seven-day siblings’ camp aimed at brothers and sisters
of young patients currently being treated for, or recovering from, a serious illness.
The gift to the Barretstown children’s charity is the first by the foundation in
Ireland.

According to [the Irish Times](http://www.irishtimes.com), Barretstown chief executive
Dee Ahearn said sibling camps provide an incredible opportunity for up to 125 siblings
to become the focus of attention, to come to camp and spend a week with other siblings
going through the exact same journey as they are.

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“Siblings can often be forgotten about, yet themselves can struggle with feelings
of guilt and incredible responsibility to put their own needs to one side given 
the fact their sibling is ill,” Ms Ahearn told the newspaper.

Vertex Foundation executive director Katharine Jensen praised Barretstown for its“
incredibly impactful work supporting children and their loved ones”.

“One focus of the foundation is providing support to families with children living
with serious diseases. Barretstown shares this focus and is remarkable,” said Ms
Jensen, who is also head of corporate responsibility at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

Vertex secured Health Service Executive approval for **Orkambi** in Ireland in 2017
after prolonged negotiations and a major lobbying campaign by patients and their
families.

Results for 2018, the most recent available, show that Vertex’s Irish business made
sales of €60 million in Ireland that year, most of it from Orkambi.

In 2018 Barretstown raised €6.4 million, €5.3 million of which came from voluntary
sources. €1.5 million was raised from corporate donations and €2.4 million from 
individual donations.

Last year Barretstown won “Charity of the Year 2019” in the Charities Institute 
Ireland awards. Nominees were judged on transparency, purpose, strategy, evaluation
and impact.

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