Fr Paddy O’Kane (right) with Roma Downey and her husband Mark Burnett
DERRY-BORN actress Roma Downey is funding a scheme to combat fuel poverty in her native city.
The ‘Warm Hearth, Warm Heart’ fund is administered by Fr Paddy O’Kane, a long-time friend of the Londonderry-born actress.
It will fund the heating of homes in Fr O’Kane’s parish in the Ballymagroarty area of Derry.
Ms Downey is best known for her starring role in the US television show ‘Touched by an Angel’.
“The whole thing is set up now and we are helping people here in the parish,” Fr O’Kane told the BBC’s Mark Patterson show.
He said the idea of Ms Downey financing a charitable scheme in Derry was first mooted in a conversation between the pair last year.
“She had said she wanted to sponsor something in my parish and initially I had thought of a scholarship type scheme,” he explained.
“But I did some research and realised so many people here are having to decide between heating and eating. I come across people who are sitting in heavy coats, in front of one bar fires to stay warm.
“It is no way to live,” he said.
The Holy Family parish priest added that on top of Ms Downey’s financial backing, the fund has received further support from local business.
He paid tribute to the actress generosity and hoped it might inspire others to lend their support.
“She is a very generous person, a Derry girl at heart and is very willing to fund it. I suppose in some ways she has never left Derry,” said Fr O’Kane.
“The more people that come on board, the more people we can help.”
He said while the fund “cannot run indefinitely”, he hoped to make it available to anyone in fuel poverty across all of Derry during the current cold weather.
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