Maggie's War ❤️

On the 2nd of June 2019 myself and 52 women will take part in the VHI Women's Mini Marathon as a team, each planning  to walk/jog/run the 10k (we need to start training).

I, along with these ladies have chosen a very special little girl to do this in aid of MAGGIE O DONOVAN. Anyone from the Whitechurch/Ballyboden area will know the Furey family who run the local Centra we have all grown up alongside them. Back in January they were dealt with some devastating news and were  faced with the hardest journey they'll ever have to face.

Below in Maggie's Mam's words is a tiny snippet of little Maggie's story....

Maggie was diagnosed with T-CELL ALL (acute lymphoblastic leukaemia) on the 14th of January. She was a perfectly healthy 1 year old up on till the 20th of December when her breathing was bit off so I took her to the gp, who said she has bronchitis and gave her 3 days worth of steroids and told me it’s viral it will take about 3 weeks to go away so by the 8th of Jan (her first birthday) she still wasn’t right and I brought her back to the gp and she told me again it’s viral I just have to let it run its course ... By the following Friday I just wasn’t happy with her and went to Tallaght and it all blew up from there ...

She had 650ml of fluid on chest as well as a tumour covering most of her left lung and going around her windpipe, they said couple more weeks and her windpipe would have been crushed by the tumour but thankfully her latest scans showed the steroids and chemos have worked and the tumour is gone so now it’s a matter of getting the bad cells out ... it only took 4/5 weeks for this tumour the grow out of no where, the doctors have told us we are lucky because it didn’t get a chance to get into her blood because we caught it so early so I’m very thankful for that. She has 6 months of aggressive chemotherapy then 2 years maintenance. Professor O'Marcaigh told me she’ll come out of this a happy healthy 4 year old.

After being diagnosed on the 12th of January, Maggie and myself spent the next 47 days in St.Johns ward in Crumlin hospital. She became very unwell and didn’t eat for 4 weeks due to her immune system being so low so caught a number of different bugs and couldn’t fight them off but thankfully her immune system started rising again and she got a lot stronger and they let her home. She is slowly bouncing back to our smiley baby girl!

Deborah ❤️
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As a parent myself this is your worst nightmare, it is the fear of the unknown but with that comes other worries! Financial worries probably being one of the biggest. If we can even raise enough to give Maggie, her Mam Deborah, Dad Kevin and the best big sister Evie a day out or cover a days cost in the hospital my mission will be accomplished. All donations are greatly appreciated. 100% of the proceeds will go directly to Deborah & Kevin. 

We will also have a sponsor card for anyone who would like to sponsor that way.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read this story

Rebecca x