A CANCER treatment centre in the southeast has said the rebranding of the State training agency Fás as Solas will have a “hugely toxic impact” on its work.
The Solas Centre in Waterford has been providing therapeutic treatment and counselling to cancer patients and their families for a decade.
In May it moved its operations from a rented two-bedroom house in the city to a state-of-the-art €2 million facility, the funding for which was raised entirely by the local Waterford community.
Iain Munroe, chairman of the Solas Centre, said the “huge amount of work that has gone into creating the Solas brand” would be destroyed by the name change for Fás.
Solas was founded in 2001 by doctors in Waterford Regional Hospital to offer psychological support to people going through cancer treatment.
“The word Solas in the southeast is synonymous with cancer support,” Mr Munroe said.
“Solas is a beacon of hope for those affected by cancer. The word itself means our charity. All the work we have done building up the brand, through the annual charity run – the Run For Life, the ads and the promotions on local radio, all that is going to go out the window if Fás is renamed Solas.
“If Fás attempts to rebrand as Solas, this will toxify our positive name and brand.
“It will hugely confuse the public and make things much harder in the years ahead for our charity to reach out to more people affected by cancer, their families and carers and make it much harder for us to recruit volunteers and raise funds for our work.
“We would have to rebrand,” Mr Munroe continued. “The cost in time and effort – in radio ads and mail shots – would run to over €100,000 plus loss of some fundraising, based on calculations done by our marketing adviser.”
He wrote to the Minister for Training and Skills, Ciarán Cannon, at the beginning of July outlining his concerns and asking him to consider a different new name for Fás.
Mr Cannon replied last week, noting his concerns, but said: “The Government has decided to proceed with the use of the name Solas.
“Solas already appears to be a name that is widely used in the business and voluntary sectors and therefore its usage in the context of a Government further education and training authority is unlikely to have any negative impact on your organisation.”
