Current Market Value:

9.56

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The History of the Jack & Jill Foundation

On 29 February 1996 Jack Irwin was born — a bonny bouncy baby. Two days later he suffered some invasive trauma in the hospital’s nursery. While history does not reveal the immediate aftermath of this drama, it is probable that he died and was resuscitated. Certainly from that moment on, Jack could not swallow and was probably blind and deaf. His parent’s dreams were shattered and the heartbreaking task of keeping Jack alive began.

Asked for a route map of care for Jack once he left their intensive care unit, it was made clear that there were simply no services in Ireland available to a baby like Jack. He cautioned that Jack’s needs would threaten the marriage and certainly damage the childhood of his healthy brothers and sister. To escape this trap, he advised the only way out was to get him admitted to one of the children’s hospitals. Then and only then would the State have to take responsibility for him.

Jack lived for 22 months — a desperate and painful life. A mix of drugs, physiotherapy, postural drainage, seizures, reflux operations, gastrostomy and suctioning. The only saving grace was that he was cosy and warm and nursed around the clock by a dedicated band of five housewives from the neighbourhood.

His short life showed his parents the ideal way in which little children like Jack can be nursed. From their experience evolved the early intervention home respite care that has now been offered to over 1100 children and their families all over Ireland since 1997. Apart from the obvious trauma and exhaustion parents of these babies suffer, they then have to cope with the bureaucratic demands of the State. Nothing is offered willingly, rather it has to be fought and begged for. The primary aim of the Health Service Executive is to protect budgets at all costs and never to set precedents.

It is also apparent that the more modest the circumstances of the family, the more uncaring the attitude of many of the officers of the State.

This leads to a situation where the Jack & Jill Foundation not only has to raise funding of €3.6 million per annum but must act as advocate for it’s families. Securing a carer’s allowance, a medical card, correct housing, special equipment or a primary medical certificate. These are all due to eligible children but very often are delayed until the intervention of the Jack & Jill Foundation.

What is Goldrush?

The Jack & Jill Foundation must constantly look for new ways to find funding to help these children and their families. We asked ourselves what we could do to give something back to those who are generous enough to donate to us, and out of this Goldrush was born.

We decided that rather then ask people to donate money, we would ask them to sell us their old gold and we would give them 55% of the value back — this leaves us with 45% of which 22.5% goes directly to the Foundation to help the sick children and the final 22.5% is used to cover all operating costs.

Folamh Limited is the recycling partner of Jack and Jill and they manage all of the operational side of the Goldrush business.

How is Goldrush different?

Unlike other Cash for Gold businesses, the primary objective of Goldrush is to raise money to help families with terminally ill children. We aim to be 100% transparent at all times, and make every effort to offer our donators the best possible rate for their gold and jewellery.

The rates we use are the rates we get offered by large companies who smelt down the gold and sell it on in bar form to global gold traders. It is important to note that we do not have access to these global traders due to the relatively small volumes we deal in, and therefore do not have access to the global market prices for gold trading. We are happy to discuss this with any potential donator. Please use the phone numbers detailed below for any queries that you might have and we will be happy to oblige.