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Case Studies

The case studies show how Rural Support can help individuals or families who are experiencing difficulties.
(Details have been changed to protect confidentiality.)

  • John

    John is 40 and is married with two young children. He works as a self-employed joiner and also manages a small farm. He invested a lot on modernising the farm and had hire purchase agreements for machinery as well as bank loans. Due to the...

    What did Rural Support do?

  • Tom and Helen

    Tom and Helen are in their late sixties.  Helen called Rural Support for help as Tom had become less able to look after the farm.  The couple were under a lot of stress, the paperwork has fallen behind and a DARD inspection had highlighte...

    What did Rural Support do?

  • Andrew

    Andrew is 50 and lives on a farm with his elderly mother. His mother has had several strokes the last of which has rendered her incapable of looking after herself. She needs to be cared for on a full-time basis and Andrew is finding it very...

    What did Rural Support do?

Staff

Rural Support has a small staff team based at its office in Cookstown.

Deborah Gavin, Volunteer and Helpline Co-ordinator/Administrator

Deborah Gavin

Volunteer and Helpline Co-ordinator/Administrator

Deborah provides day-to-day support to the volunteers and co-ordinates all aspects of the helpline such as volunteer rotas and data recording. She also provides administrative support to the organisation.

Gráinne McClean, Executive Director

Gráinne McClean

Executive Director

Gráinne is responsible for the overall management of the organisation including fundraising, financial management, monitoring, reporting, day-to-day management, advising the Board and governance.

Melissa Wylie, Outreach and Promotion Officer

Melissa Wylie

Outreach and Promotion Officer

Melissa is tasked with co-ordinating our busy programme of outreach activity. She also undertakes PR activities such as press releases, mailouts and liaison rural service provides to raise awareness of our work.