'Sister's Act' of kindness as they donate 800 eggs to sick children this Easter

People have either donated eggs to the youngsters from Ballymun, through Revolut, or dropped them off at Nan’s Centra & Off Licence, the shop where their father Thomas Metcalfe works as a delivery driver.

Thomas, 36, said the initiative, which was sparked by Lauren following an injury a decade ago, has helped to bring the community together.

“10 years ago, Lauren broke her leg just before Easter and she had loads of Easter eggs (but) she wasn’t a big chocolate person,” Thomas said.

“She said to me, ‘dad, can I bring some of these to the sick kids in the hospital?’

“I think at that stage, it was 18 or 19 eggs we brought, but for her to do that herself was an amazing thing; it made me feel proud.”

The next year, the family decided they wanted to do “something bigger” and it has become somewhat of a family tradition now.

He added there has even been international interest in the project, with a friend who owns a company in Turkey having donated €100 towards it each year.

Lauren said that they received close to 1,000 eggs last year and it was hard to fit them all in the van that was transporting them to the charity.

“Last year was the biggest one, because we had 993 eggs and it was crazy to see how many people actually donated eggs,” she said.

“It was even hard to take a picture of the eggs as we couldn’t fit them all in.”

Despite her young age, Ellamay is not a novice, having been involved with the project since she was just two-years-old.

“There’s no donation too big and there’s definitely no donation too small.”