A local family support project will be adding a bit of ‘petal power’ to fundraising efforts for Daffodil Day by growing and selling their own flowers to raise cash for people with cancer.

Staff and service users from Extern’s Drogheda-based Intensive Family Support Service (IFSS) have spent the winter months tending to hundreds of brightly-coloured blooms at sites across the town, with the aim of selling bunches of daffodils to contribute to the Irish Cancer Society’s annual campaign on March 24th.

The green-fingered growers chose daffodils as their number one blossom following consultation with pupils from local primary and secondary schools, who have been helping to grow the classic spring blooms.

Bunches of the flowers will be sold in the town, outside supermarkets, in shopping centres and on the streets during the week of March 24th. The money raised will go towards supporting the Irish Cancer Society to save lives, and to improve the situation of people affected by cancer.

Based in Drogheda town and covering areas on both sides of the River Boyne, the IFSS project is a community-based initiative that provides support to young people at risk of engaging, or engaged, in criminal activity. The team works with the young person, their family, and positive supports within the community to identify alternative pathways for the young people concerned.

Liz Cronin, who manages the IFSS project, said: “The daffodil symbolises rebirth and new beginnings, which is an idea which resonates with many of those families and young people we support each year through our work.

“Along with our partners, we have been growing the daffodils in school grounds and green areas of local housing estates, with some service users even nurturing them in planters in and around their homes.” 

Details of where the bunches will be sold will be published on Extern’s Facebook and Twitter pages in the days leading up to and following Daffodil Day.

For details on Extern’s range of services across Ireland, see: www.extern.org.