Mid-Louth: Ardee concert raises €11k for cancer charity

The proceeds of a hugely successful charity concert in Ardee Co.Louth are being used to increase awareness of a rare form of cancer, neuroendocrine tumours.

The event, held at the Bohemian Centre, Ardee, on 1st April, raised over €11,000. It was organised by the well-known Co. Louth soprano and director of the Ardee School of Music, Ruth Kelly Brady, whose mother, Róisín, has a neuroendocrine cancer condition (NETs).

Róisín and Ruth recently travelled to Saint Vincent’s Hospital, Dublin, the national Centre of Excellence for NETs disease, where they presented the funds from the Ardee concert.

Mark Mc Donnell, the chairperson of Net Patient Network, the support group for patients and families dealing with the condition, said the money will be used to increase awareness of the disease.

According to Mark:

“Our support group plans to use the funds to run a programme to improve knowledge and awareness amongst frontline nurses who provide quality advice for those seeking information about the disease.

“The money raised in Louth will also help to finance the annual information weekend we organise for patients and their families.”

Ruth Kelly Brady’s mother, Róisín, was first diagnosed with cancer nine years ago.

In 2021, seven years after her cancer journey began, Róisín was told that the disease had become active again.

The team at the Centre of Excellence in Saint Vincent’s, led by Professor Dermot O’Toole, arranged that she travel to Uppsala in Sweden, for a series of interventions, spread over several months, to halt the spread of the disease.

Róisín was back in Ardee, after her first treatment in Sweden, the day before the concert in the Bohemian Centre and was delighted to attend the event.

The Kelly family are well known throughout the Co Louth area.

Ruth’s father, Gus, is proprietor of Kellys’ butcher shop in Louth village and the family business has been operating for 48 years.

Ruth is a classically-trained soprano, who studied at the DIT Conservatoire of Music and went on to be coached by the renowned Dr Veronica Dunne.

Ruth has performed in a solo and choral capacity at venues including the National Concert Hall, Cork Opera House and Dublin’s Olympia Theatre.

She also runs the Ardee School of Music, where classes in singing, piano, violin, cello, guitar and ukulele are provided and there are also classes for babies, toddlers and pre-schoolers and pre-instrumental classes for 7 year-olds.

All of those involved in the sold-out concert at the Bohemian Centre participated on a pro-bono basis.
According to Ruth:

“It was so moving to see how so many friends and neighbours supported the project.

“As well as those involved on the night, several local businesses provided sponsoring. It was such a memorable night.”
Among those who participated in the event were The Drogheda Male Voice Choir; its director, David Leddy, who was the accompanist for the night; the Ardee Children’s Choir; the Local Vocals choir, soprano Andrea Porter from Derry; tenor Timmy Regan and Kevin Shortall, who acted as MC on the night.

Ruth and her husband, Will, have three children. Her two daughters, Sally (16) and Maisie (13) sang at the concert and their 14 year-old brother, Alfie, helped with the preparations.

The former RTÉ journalist, Tommie Gorman, has a nueuroendocrine cancer condition. He was diagnosed with the disease in 1994. At the Ardee event he spoke about his experience of NETs and thanked Ruth Kelly Brady for her work.