Donations to help Cork folk musician and song collector Jimmy Crowley return home have topped \u20ac11,000 just hours after a GoFundMe page was set up.<\/p>\n
Crowley, who started collecting music at the age of 16, shared that he was diagnosed with stage three oesophageal cancer in September last year.<\/p>\n
In a post published to Facebook on Thursday afternoon, he informed the \u201cdear people of this beautiful city and beyond\u201d of the news and explained that he was calling on them \u201cas a last resort\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been rather under the weather of late. In late September 2025, I was diagnosed with Stage Three oesophageal cancer. Three months later, on 27th December, I had a debilitating stroke,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI’ve been in the Stroke Ward in Cork University Hospital for nearly five months now. I had a good many setbacks and complications during that time, including several falls which resulted in a hip replacement and then periprosthetic surgery on the same hip.\n <\/p>\n
“I am now mostly wheelchair-bound, but have not given up on learning to walk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Crowley reminisced about his life as a full-time musician, cyclist, all-year-round sea-swimmer, and walker before his cancer diagnosis and stroke.<\/p>\n
He explained that all he wants is to be able to return home, but that it would require support in the form of two full-time carers.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow all I want is to be able to return home to Cobh, to my pussycat Smudge and my sweetheart Eve. I’m soon to be discharged from CUH, and the choice is stark: home or nursing home,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the only way I can return home is if I have two carers living with me 24\/ 7. My partner Eve will be a full-time carer, but I need a second carer. I kindly request any donations, large or small, to help me afford a second live-in carer so I can finally return to Cobh and live at home, rather than in a nursing home, for the time I have left.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He assured that all donations will also help with the rising costs of suddenly having to live with not one but two life-changing health conditions.<\/p>\n
Mr Crowley told The Echo that he had got to make a brief trip home today, and \u201cI\u2019ll hopefully be going home for good soon. I don\u2019t want to go to a nursing home.\u201d His partner Eve said: \u201cWe\u2019re hoping he\u2019ll be discharged in a week, but it\u2019s really dependant on how the fundraiser goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were given the ultimatum a couple of weeks ago that we\u2019d have to find him a second live-in carer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been really hard, because Jimmy is quite a private person and he normally wouldn\u2019t share something like this, but he\u2019s been forced to.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no shame in it, and the community spirit has been wonderful. We only just put the fundraiser up, we\u2019re amazed with how well it\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll we want is for him to be able to come home and stay home for the time he has left.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n