Air ambulance for Madeline

About 5 weeks ago, on Tuesday 12th April 2022, our beloved Madeline, partner and mother of three children, set off with her youngest son Charlie on what was meant to be a holiday break combined with visiting her sister and family in Donegal, Ireland.

The holiday was going great then disaster struck, Madeline suffered a massive stroke whilst on the beach in donegal, an ambulance arrived in 20 minutes, which probably saved her life and she was taken to Letterkenny hospital and then had to be transferred on a three hour journey to beaumont hospital in Dublin because Madeline suffers from an underlying blood disorder which causes clots and beaumont hospital is the only specialist hospital in Ireland. After 8 days, Madeline was stabilized and transferred back to Letterkenny hospital where she currently is in rehab, Madeline has no use of her left hand side and is undergoing rehabilitation and we know it is going to be a long, tough process for her.

Part of the healing process from a stroke includes the victim being able to feel upbeat and Madeline has a place at Fairfield hospital in Bury awaiting her however due to not taking out travel insurance the NHS will not budge with regard to paying for an air ambulance and she is becoming depressed because she wants to be home, arriving by boat is not possible due to the length of the journey and the underlining illness.

As a family we are proud that we have always payed for everything and even on this occasion, we felt that we would contribute as much as we could towards the cost of bringing her home, however in order to lift Madeline's spirits we are using all of our available income to visit Madeline so that she doesn’t  feel alone.

Letterkenny hospital and staff have been fabulous including Daniel, Madeline's social worker who is constantly trying to negotiate with the NHS even advising us to move Madeline 30 miles to derry hospital so that she would be covered by the NHS, however Madelines doctor advised against this citing that we would be going against medical advice.

This email is meant to be read by anybody in the world that can help us raise funds to help Madeline, however anybody that reads it and knows Madeline already will know what kind of person she is, the job that she does for vulnerable members of the community and the parent that she is. We feel let down by the NHS simply because Daniel, the social worker in Letterkenny hospital, managed to negotiate with an air ambulance company a price which he felt was reasonable and less than 20,000 Pounds.

Anybody that feels they have the ability to help in any small way will be in our hearts forever.

Thank you from Anthony, Aidan, Chiara and Charlie but most importantly Madeline.