DJ People of the Year awards - Lifetime achievement for Dr. Keith Munro

Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dr Keith Munro pictured with Arthur Duffy editor Derry Journal and the Deputy Mayor of Derry, Kerry Sythes and Strabane Colr Jim McKeever at the Derry Journal People of the Year Awards in the Everglades Hotel Derry on Thursday evening last. DER3616GS061

Loud applause filled the ballroom at the Everglades as Dr. Keith Munro was presented with the Special Recognition Lifetime Achievement award for his decades of commitment to health care in the North West, particularly to the Foyle Hospice.

Nominated by Terri Sythes of the Foyle Hospice, the audience heard how Dr Keith Munro had been a founding member of the charity.

“He had long believed in the need for hospice care in the North West and when he heard in 1983 that Dr. Tom McGinley was starting a movement to provide hospice care in the area he joined forces with him and became a member of the founding committee,” said Mrs. Sythes.

“With Dr. McGinley as the spearhead Keith Munro walked beside him on the journey to found Foyle Hospice, raise the money the build and run it and extend its services over the years.

“This journey required hard work and dedication in educating people of the need for Hospice care and in raising the money to provide it.

“One of the many ways Keith helped fundraise was by applying to several hundred charitable trusts for funding and from these applications much needed funds were donated. He also took part in endless fund-raising events from sponsored walks to street collections.

“In 2005 he wrote a history of Foyle Hospice ‘Building Bridges’ with of course all the proceeds coming to the hospice.

Anne and Dr Keith Munro pictured with the Deputy Mayor of Derry and Strabane Colr Jim McKeever at the Derry Journal People of the Year Awards in the Everglades Hotel Derry on Thursday evening last. DER3616GS032

“He has served as a Foyle Hospice Trustee for 33 years, retiring earlier this year, serving for many years as vice chair. He also, in a voluntary capacity, took on the role of acting chief executive for several years. His contribution to the governance of the organisation has been enormous.

“Throughout his 33 years of unstinting voluntary work Dr Munro has helped to guide the Foyle Hospice from its small beginnings to where it is now, an outstanding and recognised centre of palliative care.”

Keith was a GP in Derry for 33 years, serving all of his patients tirelessly through a difficult period in the city’s history.

Dr Munro is a founding member of the Baha’i Community in Northern Ireland. He has also worked as a forensics officer since 1970.