2015 is a special year for the Aisling Centre Company Ltd as they celebrate 25 years of offering hope and healing to people in times of distress and despair. Recently appointed chairperson Dr Ann McDermott and her vice-chairperson Alison Annan are looking forward to leading the Centre into their 25th year.

The Aisling Centre is an essential part of the fabric of County Fermanagh and holds a special place in the hearts of many.

Ann, Alison and the Board of Directors want the community to join with them to remember and celebrate. “We are planning a programme of events to celebrate this special year which will end with a big birthday bash on November 11.” The core service of the Aisling Centre is the provision of a dedicated and professional counselling and psychotherapy service for the people of Co Fermanagh and the surrounding area. Over the past 25 years this service has help thousands of people through the difficult times in their lives. For many it has actually saved lives.

Ann and Alison, both long-time members of the Board of Directors of the Aisling Centre applaud the foresight of the founding ‘sisters’. Sisters Mary Daly, Edel Bannon and Helena Hunt who had the vision and conviction to establish the Aisling Centre in a time when there was much greater stigma around the issue of mental health. Also, the members of the wider community, who had the courage to support them and, establish the Aisling Centre as a registered charity and a limited company. To this day Directors, members and friends from right across the community, work hard along with the staff team, to carry the Aisling ‘dream’ forward.

However, the enduring testament of the Aisling Centre is the people who avail of the services provided and on this both Ann and Alison are in total agreement, “We are ever awed by their courage and honoured by the trust they place in us. “We thank them for sharing with us the difficult times in their lives. We hope that they will now celebrate with us and ask everyone associated, in any way, with the Aisling Centre to put the evening of November 11 in their diaries.

“We have a birthday cake to cut and we will need help to eat it!”