The Beaumont Hospital Foundation has asked people to stop forwarding a chain letter seeking funding for a radiology/cardiology unit as the unit has already been built and opened.
Cheques for €9 are still coming into the foundation at a rate of three or four a day, despite the fact that the Taoiseach opened the Dublin unit for computerised keyhole surgery last year.
Members of the foundation's corporate committee began the letter nearly three years ago. It asks the receiver to donate €9 and to pass on to the letter to 10 people. It raised some €200,000 in funding but is now proving difficult to stop.
Although the foundation stressed that it welcomed all funding, it could not divert the money to other projects without the go-ahead of the donors. It must ring the donor of every €9 received to get approval to put the money in a fund for cardiological research.
"Obviously we love to get a donation as the hospital still needs money but please don't send these letters on," said Ms Paula Chapman, event co-ordinator for the foundation.
She said the foundation had found that, by the time they had rung the donor to seek permission to divert the money, the donor had already forwarded the letter to 10 more people.
"It has been a very, very successful campaign and was the first time we did something like this. It started as £7 and was switched to €9 when the euro came in. It went nationwide and I suppose it was successful because it was such a small sum of money," she said.
"We are very grateful to donors but we would like to stop the chain letter now.
"They are still coming in at a rate of about three or four a day," Ms Chapman said.
"It is proving quite hard but I think we might be getting there by now."
The Beaumont Hospital Foundation was set up in 1995 and raises funds for a variety of projects.
