Eleven year old gave all of her €350 birthday money to charity

If kindness is the greatest wisdom then eleven-year-old Sarah Melia from Moycullen is as intelligent as any centenarian.

Generous Sarah, when she was aged just ten, decided to forgo presents for her upcoming eleventh birthday.

Sarah asked her mother Savanagh to tell people attending her birthday party to bring money instead of presents – she kindly donated all of her birthday money to the charity, Console.

In the weeks before her birthday, Sarah had asked her mother to go through a list of local charities and spell out what each organisation did.

Sarah, in an act of selfless generosity and kindness, then decided to donate her birthday money to Console, when Savanagh explained that it was Galway’s suicide and bereavement charity.

Sarah, who attends the local national school, Scoil Bhaile Nua, at Newtown, Moycullen, donated a whopping sum of €350 in birthday cash to the charity.

“She’d renew your faith in humanity,” said Margaret Tierney project development manager with Console, who confirmed that Sarah is Console’s youngest ever donor.

“It’s a heart-warming story. You ask ‘what’s the catch?’ There is no catch. It is so generous; it brought a tear to my eye to think that a young girl, aged just ten, thought about our charity instead of birthday gifts. For a little girl to give up her presents and give her birthday money to charity – I’ve never heard of it before but it would warm your heart,” said Ms Tierney.

Ms Tierney said the Melia family hadn’t lost anybody to suicide although they do know people in the Moycullen area who had been directly affected by suicide bereavement.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.