How the Toy Show Appeal supported women overcoming addiction

The countdown to The Late Late Toy Show is well and truly on. Billed as the most magical night on Irish television, the show is famous for its incredible performances, surprise appearances, and unscripted hilarity.

Over the past number of years, though, the Christmas extravaganza has taken on another role.

Since 2020, the audience at home have been raising incredible funds for projects all over Ireland through The Late Late Toy Show Appeal.

One such project is Coolmine Ashleigh House, a residential service for women and children that provides a range of services for those working to overcome addiction.

We need your consent to load this Instagram contentWe use Instagram to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

Georgina O'Neill and Leandra O'Malley from Coolmine Ashleigh House joined Ray D'Arcy on RTÉ Radio 1 to discuss their work, and how their organisation has benefitted from the appeal.

"It's a beautiful opportunity to bring together mams and kids," says Georgina. "It's just magic. It can be chaotic, Ray, but it's magic."

Ashleigh House has reported a 70% success rate with their clients, which provides - on average - five months of therapy.

"We worked with over 65 women in 2022," she explains. "This Christmas, we'll have 23 women and up to 17 children that have a safe space."

"With barriers that these women face with housing or creche or childcare, the women could be living with us anywhere up to five months or up to 12 months because we always make sure there's a seamless transition."

Transitioning from the residential home back to everyday life is far from easy, but Georgina says the women are always given as much preparation as possible.

"The women do so much change in Ashleigh, and nothing changes in society," she notes.

"But it's the tools they build, the confidence they build, it's also the relationships they re-build with extended family. But also their community; we'd be very lucky that we work with different organisations, housing bodies, domestic violence charities, children's organisations."

"It's about encouraging these women," she adds. "Although it's a very scary world out there - we all know that - they do have the tools to be able to live a life in recovery."

Funding from the Toy Show Appeal allowed staff at Ashleigh House to develop a "fairy garden" in their centre, a cherished space for both mothers and children alike.

"We wanted to enhance it, make it safe, and make it accessible, really, for the children to use to build resilience through play and creativity," Leandra explains. "It's a playground, but really a family space as well."

Seeing as Christmas is just around the corner, Ray checked into make sure Santa knows which kids are staying in Ashleigh House so they won't be missed.

"He sure does," says Leandra. "Absolutely."

For more information on Ashleigh House or to donate, visit www.coolminetc.ie. For more information on The Late Late Toy Show Appeal, visit www.rte.ie/toyshowappeal

Listen back to the interview in full, below:

We need your consent to load this SoundCloud contentWe use SoundCloud to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences

If you have been affected by issues raised in this story, please visit: www.rte.ie/helplines.

How the Toy Show Appeal supported women overcoming addiction

More stories on

Recipe Search

Read Next