Solo Marathon for Erika

I first heard about little Erika's fight 2 weeks ago. Since my wife and I welcomed our daughter into our lives in the last few weeks, Erika's story really resonated with me and I wanted to help. My plan is to run a full marathon on my own in my home village of Multyfarnham on Saturday, June 6th to raise as much as we can to get Erika to America for her life-saving treatment. Friends in New Zealand (Patrick Romeril) and Sweden (David Hoey) will also run solo marathons on the same day. Here is a little information about Erika. Erika was born prematurely at 31 weeks and had hydrocephalus and needed a shunt inserted into her brain. Erika had many hospital stays over the first 3 years of her life which included being treated for swine flu and pneumonia. Thankfully, she got through these awful diseases. In December 2018, Erika’s shunt in her brain blocked and she underwent brain surgery. Then, her tummy became very swollen for 2 weeks, which the hospital put down to constipation. However, this was not the case and Erika was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer in her pelvis. Erika's kidneys began to fail and she ended up in I.C.U for 4 weeks where Erika underwent dialysis. This proves that Erika will fight anything thrown her way! Erika then went to Temple Street and had to go through yet another surgery on her brain, as her shunt blocked again due to the size of the tumour in her pelvis. Erika had 9 cycles of VAC chemotherapy, reconstructive surgery and had 23 sessions of proton therapy in Essen Germany. In December, Erika got a scan to check the tumour after her radiation in Germany and the scan was totally clear, the cancer was gone. Erika had just finished 6 months of chemo on Tuesday, 28th of April and had a scan to check the tumour as her treatment was finally over. Devastatingly, the scan showed that Erika had relapsed and the tumour had grown in the same spot to 9cm in size. At the moment, Erika is undergoing chemotherapy in Crumlin hospital. After this, she is hoping to go to Amsterdam for further treatment to kill the 9cm tumour inside Erika’s pelvis. The main aim is to Get Erika to America! If the tumour shrinks enough to have it fully removed. This can cost over €650,000 including €450,000 just for the surgery alone, possible treatment that will follow post-surgery, aftercare, travel and accommodation expenses. If Erika passes before this can happen and Erika needs palliative care, the funds will be used for her palliative care and the remaining funds will be donated to The Gavin Glynn Foundation and Aoibheann’s Pink Tie Charity as per her family's wishes. Please donate if you can and let's help Erika get her treatment!