Main fundraiser photo

V’s HSCT journey to Mexico

After suffering 11 years of a severely debilitating condition affecting the entire body, Veronica is raising money to fund specialist Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Puebla Mexico on the 9th of January 2023.

Welcome to Veronica's Story...... In the summer of 2011, Veronica lost 80% of her vision and became colour blind in her right eye. Gradually throughout the year, Veronica saw an increase in symptoms and a decline in mobility, causing loss of feeling, numbness, severe fatigue, pain and muscle weakness in some regions of the body. After two years of doctor’s visits, multiple ongoing variations of tests, and being admitted several times to the hospital, Veronica was finally given a diagnosis that shattered her entire world...... "Multiple Sclerosis".  

This diagnosis took a long time, with much support from family and friends to come to terms with. She was only 25, and her daughter Shayah was only two and a half years old. Veronica had just graduated from University, ready to start a career with a passion for working with children. Instead, Veronica has been fighting this horrific disease, suffering every day for 11 years. 

Veronica was offered Disease Modifying Therapies, where she started her treatment journey in 2013. These consisted of 'Avonex,' 'Rebif,' 'Fingolimod,' and most recently, 'ocrelizumab.' All of these caused multiple side effects that she had to battle with, as well as the MS symptoms she was already facing. Unfortunately, after nine years and four different treatments, they have proven unsuccessful in preventing the disease from progressing. Sadly, Veronica has continued to deteriorate, resulting in her having to rely on a wheelchair and other mobility aids to complete daily activities, suffering consistent severe pain. 

 Since Veronica's diagnosis, her life dreams, aspirations and ambition of working with children have been crushed and taken away by this debilitating condition. Initially, Veronica tried to work with reduced hours fighting through the pain, but this proved difficult and eventually resulted in her having to stop work altogether. 

In 2013 Veronica started physiotherapy to gain strength and reduce muscle weakness, which continued until she moved to Ireland. In 2019, Veronica started attending the MS Northwest Therapy Centre, where she receives oxygen therapy, physiotherapy, and reflexology to help with her MS symptoms. She was also referred to Speech therapy for swallowing problems resulting in choking episodes and exercises for word-finding and cognitive activities. 

As her condition deteriorates from relapsing-remitting to secondary progressive, she relies heavily on her parents and daughter for support. Her mobility has significantly decreased, and she uses mobility aids to get on with her day-to-day life; most days, it wins, but she never gives up. Despite Veronica's medical condition, she is still a pillar of strength to her family and friends, never complaining of her severe pain and refusing to give up on life. Veronica puts others first; despite her debilitating condition, she is thoughtful, creative, inspirational, and admirably noble. It has been extremely hard to see such an incredible person critically suffer and struggle every day. As Veronica's closest friends and family, we believe in Veronica and her recovery from the only treatment that can give her a chance at gaining her life back. 

Multiple Sclerosis has no cure and is a lifelong condition that affects the nerves, spinal cord, and brain. The body’s immune system mistakenly attacks a healthy part of the body – in this case, it damages and destroys the fatty substance that coats and protects the nerve fibres called the Myelin Sheath. MS leads to loss of vision, mobility, balance, sensation and becomes a permanent disabling disease. 

Traveling to Puebla, Mexico, to undergo HSCT is the only real lifeline since the diagnosis and for Shayah to have her mum back to some normality. Veronica's amazing daughter has relentlessly been there for her, but 13-year-olds should never have to worry about their mum choking or being severely injured from a fall. She’s never complained as it’s been a part of their lives since she was 2, but any hope to improve their future is worth it for Veronica to continue to be the incredible mother she is to such an intelligent and resilient girl. 

The treatment is called Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation (HSCT), an intense chemotherapy treatment (four chemotherapy infusions) aimed to stop the damage that MS causes by completely wiping out and regrowing the immune system using stem cells from the bone marrow, which in all takes 28 days. Unfortunately, the treatment is not available in Ireland, and she is not eligible on the NHS – traveling to Mexico remains her only option. The treatment costs $54,500, which does not cover the insurance, travel expenses (to name only a couple) or medical care needed when arriving back to Ireland to recover. 

To date, HSCT is the ONLY chance of a complete reset of her body and try to prevent this from becoming a permanent disabling disease. For 11 years, we have seen her take this head-on, work hard and persevere with her career and parenthood despite her ailments, but we’ve also witnessed first-hand the damage and toll it takes. She deserves to continue to pursue her ambitions and take control of her life. 

 We THANK YOU from the bottom of our Hearts for taking the time to read Veronica's story; we sincerely appreciate any donations to help Veronica fight this horrendous disease! We will also be organising some fundraising events, which we would love to share with you; any other ideas are greatly welcomed and appreciated. From Veronica's Loving Family and Friends.

Donations 

  • Josie and Seamus Hunt
    • €20 (Offline)
    • 1 yr
  • Nancy Pilon
    • €100 
    • 1 yr
  • The George South Woodford
    • €52 (Offline)
    • 1 yr
  • Lisa Richardson
    • €50 
    • 1 yr
  • Alan Conboy
    • €100 
    • 1 yr

Fundraising team (3)

Veronica Feehily
Organiser
Raised €13,030 from 60 donations
County Sligo
Tricia Anderson
Team member
Raised €120 from 2 donations
Rhian Solomon-Ayeh
Team member
This team has raised €46,877 from 251 other donations.

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