Vincent Browne - Croi Volunteer

He had his first encounter with the cardiac unit in UCHG in 1990 when a serious heart attack threatened to end his life but it wasn’t until some years later that he began work as a Croi volunteer.
In 1994, before cardiac surgery was carried out in Galway, Vincent travelled to Dublin for a bypass. After he recovered he wanted to give something back.

‘I felt there was something I should be doing’ he said. ‘I was so appreciative of the care I received.
Initially, he contacted the Irish Heart Foundation but when he realised that all the activities were happening on the East of the country, Vincent decided to get involved closer to home and began helping with and running fundraising events for Croi.

Vincent could be seen shaking a bucket at church gate collections, flag days and the annual parkathon in the Galway Shopping Centre.
After one such collection he brought the proceeds up to the Croi office at the back of the hospital and saw the staff busy counting coins. It was a light bulb moment because he immediately recognised a way he could really be of help to the organisation. For 22 years Vincent had worked in the cash office at CIE and could count coins in his sleep! He quickly realised that while the Croi staff were counting coins, they couldn’t be answering phones or attending to the many and varied tasks that arise daily in that busy office.

At that time it all had to be done manually and took several days but it was no problem for Vincent. He counted every penny, bagged it and lodged it, freeing up the Croi staff to do what they do best.
In recent times Vincent has also been helping out in the Croi MyAction office in Liosban where he keeps files in order and helps put literature packs together.

Almost two decades and a lot of procedures later Vincent once again found himself availing of the hospitality of the cardiac unit in Galway after another heart attack but this times things were very different.
‘The facilities there now are beyond description’ he says. ‘They really are state of the art.’
Vincent now has first hand experience of how many of those coins he’s been counting over the years have been spent!