Determined Laois vision culminated in vital cancer support at Portlaoise's Cuisle Centre

Back in the 1990s a seed germinated in the mind of Peter Naughton.

The surgeon who specialised in cancer care at Portlaoise hospital decided that local people with the disease needed more than clinical help from in hospitals or via their GP.

The Galway native wanted more for the people of his adopted county and those from other counties who attended Portlaoise hospital. With the backing first of his wife Veronie, who worked in Harold's Cross Hospice, he set out on a mission to set up a cancer support service in Laois.

Many others joined him in the cause, which would ultimately see the seed of an idea germinate and grow into what is now a vital part of the cancer journey for people with cancer and their families from Laois and beyond.

The journey from idea to reality, the centre that is now located on the Block Road in Portlaoise, was certainly not straightforward, but Mr Naughton tells it with great clarity in a new published booklet.

The now-retired doctor writes of his vision for his patients.

“I wanted many things for my adoptive county, including a hospice and a proper breast-care service, but the cancer support unit would be a complementary and essential piece of the jigsaw,” he said.

Oncology care in Portlaoise hospital has been relocated, while in 2026, the HSE is finally in the advanced stages of building a hospice for Laois and the Midlands.

While the cancer support service did materialise and has flourished, the Cuisle Centre may not have become a reality without a lot of effort and campaigning by Mr Naughton and many others in the community.

Mr Naughton recounts how, as Medical Director to Laois Hospice, he made his first appeal to the Midland Health Board in 1997 for funding.

“A year later, I got a reply - they were not in a position to be supportive,” he writes.

But he wasn't going to be stopped by some bureaucratic shortsightedness. He explained that the next step was to win public support and make it a political issue.

“As far as Laois people were concerned, we were pushing an open door,” he writes. MORE BELOW PICTURE OF THE COVER OF THE NEW BOOK.

Health board intransigence meant seven years passed before a turning point.

“On a day in 2003, Mary Conroy's husband, Stephen - a farmer and traditional musician, gave me a cheque for €30,000 for the proposed centre. I looked at it in my hand, knowing that many hours of music sessions and dogged determination went into the making of it - a lesson in bloody-minded relentlessness. Stephen wasn't taking no for an answer, and neither should I. This was a decisive moment for me,” writes Mr Naughton.

He went back to 'hassling' the health board with the site finally allocated later in 2003.

Laois Hospice, under the chairmanship of Seamus Donohoe, got involved to help with the fundraising to build the centre. A project team was formed, made up of PJ O'Gorman, William Telford, Tommy Keane, John White, Antoinette Brennan, Kathleen Cushen and Linda Byrne.

They would be the first Cuisle Centre board members without whom the project would never have been realised.

They decided to set the service up first while funds were raised to build a home. A house was rented near the hospital in 2004 when the Cusle Centre became a reality.

Work commenced in 2006 and was completed in mid 2007 at a cost of €1.3 m. The Government provided €170,000.

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Mr Naughton stepped away after 17 years on the board in 2020. He and some other long-term board members believe the time had come to allow people with new ideals to move the Centre to the next phase of its development. Dr John Connaughton, Portlaoise hospital's clinical director, is now the Cuisle Centre's medical director.

He writes that the Centre remains independent of the HSE and now has four full- time staff. He said around 400 people receive free support annually, funded by the community.

“The Cuisle Centre was the first purpose-built cancer support centre in Ireland and exists because of the generosity and tenacity of the people of Laois,” writes Mr Naughton.

* The booklet, which is available at the Cuisle Centre, also recounts the work carried out by the Laois Defibrillator Group, which was made up of Mr Naughton, Sheelagh Coyle, Seamus Moran and Derek Phelan.

They went about the job of mapping the locations of all Defibrillators in Laois so that they could be made available to the public and emergency services where a member of the public suffered cardiac arrest. A total of 120 were mapped.