A woman says hospice care has made her life better in several ways.
Mary Kelly is a respite patient at Our Lady's Hospice in Harold's Cross.
She was speaking ahead of an annual fundraising day in aid of specialist palliative hospice and homecare services.
'Hospice Coffee Morning Together with Bewley's' is one of Ireland’s longest established and fundraisers.
It takes place next Thursday September 24th.
Mary Kelly told Newstalk Breakfast: "Eight years ago I was diagnosed with COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease - I was getting breathless sometimes, not very often.
"But they gave me an inhaler in the hospital and I just got on with my life.
"And in between that time I got TB on my lungs, and I was given medication for nine months to deal with that.
"Then I got rheumatoid arthritis, I got fibromyalgia, and I also got advanced emphysema.
"That was diagnosed January 2019".
She says her respiratory team put her on morphine to help her to breathe.
"I just couldn't breathe, no matter what I did, I just couldn't breathe.
"If I was going upstairs to go to the bathroom, my husband would have to push me up the stairs.
"It was getting more and more difficult all the time.
"So in April, the doctor told me that I needed a double lung transplant to keep me alive.
"So Mr Kelly in the hospital sent to the hospice to a lovely lady called Julie Goss down there.
"I went down and I was just sitting outside the door, and it said on it 'Palliative Care' - and I said to myself 'I shouldn't be here'.
"This place is for people who are really sick and die here... lots of things went through my mind.
"When I went in, Julie Goss was like an angel - she just took me and listened to me and didn't interrupt me, and just put everything in place for me to live a normal life with this serious illness that I have".
Mary says she was afraid she would die from her coughing fits.
"One day in particular I got into the car and turned on the engine and a coughing fit started - and I jumped out of the car because I knew: if I jump out of the car somebody will see me if I die beside the car".
"The coughing fit would last - it's called an exasperation - it would last maybe 12, 15 minutes or more.
"And you can die from it".
She says the hospice has helped her in so many ways.
"There's a breathlessness team and they've taught me how to, when I get short of breath, how to use my breathing properly.
"They've taught me how to breathe when I'm in one of these distressed situations, and then the psychologist he keeps me calm.
"He's taught me many ways of coping with the mind and how to deal with what is going on with this illness".
"There's lots of things that they do for people, not only help people through their really hard times of their loved ones dying".
People can donate to 'Hospice Coffee Morning Together with Bewley's' online at www.justgiving.com/campaign/hospice or text 'COFFEE' to 50300 to donate €4 (Text costs €4. Hospice Coffee Morning Together with Bewley’s will receive a minimum of €3.60)
