The long-running campaign to secure round-the-clock cardiac care services in Waterford has a new supporter - in the form of Premier Division side Waterford FC.
The club announced this week that instead of putting a sponsor's logo on its jersey for the 2020 season, it is instead carrying the message "the south-east needs 24/7 cardiac care".
Recent years have seen several protest marches and events taking place to back the move for a second catheterisation lab at University Hospital Waterford which would be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Work on a second cath lab is currently in the planning phase and could start later this year, but the issue of round-the-clock access will only be considered as part of the national review of cardiac care specialist services which is due for publication this spring.
Waterford FC will showcase their jersey in action for the first time in this Friday night’s home game against Bohemians, following a special launch event for supporters and sponsors this evening.
Club chairman Lee Power said in a statement that the club wanted "to reach out and remind people that Waterford FC is not only a football club, we’re a community, one that stretches throughout the southeast and further abroad".
General manager Jack Power told RTÉ News that, with money tight in Irish football generally at the moment following recent controversies, Waterford didn’t want to sell their jersey space short.
"We said, look, we’re going to take a different direction this year and we’re going to do a bit of goodwill and the cardiac campaign took our eye," he said.
The reaction has been "very positive" from the footballing public across the southeast, he said. "I think it’s great now for people to see that we’re looking after the town as well as the soccer club."
The move has been given the all-clear by the FAI, as the cardiac care campaign is not considered political.
"The message is clear and we're only sticking with the message, there’s no politics or anything around it. We just want to raise awareness and that’s all we’re there to do, not cause any grief or any trouble."
Team manager Alan Reynolds said that for people who are from Waterford: "It’s important that we get the right message out there, that we need it in the south-east, so we’re fully behind it."
With Waterford getting off to a strong start and a win already behind them this season ahead of Friday night’s visit of Bohemians, "there’s a good vide around at the moment," the manager added.
The jersey move has been backed by the 24/7 Cardiac Care Campaign, with Willie Doyle of that group speaking out in favour.
His daughter, Jennifer, suffered a heart attack in April of 2014 and arrived at UHW at 4.30pm on a Friday afternoon.
"When she got into the hospital it was discovered it was a full blockage. Luckily enough she made it in for 4.30pm, a stent was put in, the cons on the day told us that had she gone in after 5pm she would have died, she would not have made the trip to Cork."
She is "in good form" today, Mr Doyle said, with a pacemaker fitted, but it could have been a different story.
"We discovered that you can only have a heart attack in the south-east nine to five, Monday to Friday. This is a crazy situation, every other part of the country has a 24/7 cardiac service, but alas we don’t have."
The Waterford FC initiative will help raise the message throughout the country of the campaign, he said.
"It’s going to make a lot of people more aware of it and hopefully by the end of this we will have a full 24-hour service, like everywhere else."
