IRELAND: Amy Winehouse Foundation

16 December 2011

Amy Winehouse charity announces support for Irish hospice:

The Amy Winehouse Foundation is celebrating its Irish connection until Xmas supporting the Emerald Isle's first children's hospice.

The singer's charity will support the hospice via proceeds of Amy Winehouse's posthumously released album.

The hospice LauraLynn House in Foxrock, Dublin provides support and care for very sick children including those living with terminal or seriously life-threatening conditions.

The children's hospice was only recently opened in September 2011 by the President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, and is already helping around 300 children and their families.

Between now and the end of the year the Amy Winehouse Foundation will donate one pound for every copy of the singer's Lioness album sold in Ireland.

Mitch Winehouse of the Amy Winehouse Foundation recently travelled to Ireland to meet representatives of the LauraLynn House to cement the arrangement. The charities are hoping sales of the recording in the run up to Xmas will raise a substantial amount of money to help the hospice.

A new album of unreleased Amy Winehouse material - Lioness: Hidden Treasures is out now featuring recordings chosen by her family, including Winehouse songs such as Tears Dry - and cover versions such as the duet with Tony Bennett: Body and Soul. The Amy Winehouse Foundation promoted album promises donations from its sales going to charity. The album is available on iTunes.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation was launched in September to raise funds for the singer's favourite causes, in this case children's charity. In fact this area appears to be a major beneficiary so far for the Winehouse charity, the foundation having already made substantial donations to the Little Havens Children's Hospice, in Thundersley, Essex and to the Chestnut Tree House Children's Hospice in Sussex.

LauraLynn House spokeswoman Philomena Dunne says children's hospices provide vital support for sick children and their families to enjoy quality time together in a home-like environment.

The LauraLynn hospice provides family accommodation, practical and emotional support and respite care and prides itself on meeting family needs rather than offering a prescribed formula for care. LauraLynn House is supported by paediatricians, palliative care nurses, physiotherapy, clinical and occupational therapy teams.

The Amy Winehouse Foundation was set up by the singer's family announcing it would be passionate about raising money for young people in need in the UK, across Europe, America and elsewhere across the world.