Support for Sinéad ♥️

This is Sinéad Mitchell, our amazing and courageous friend, mother, daughter, sister, sister-in law, aunt


For anyone who is fortunate enough to know Sinéad, they will tell you she is always the first one to reach out to help others in a time of need. She is the most fun loving , caring and kind person with a huge heart of gold. She is a genuinely friendly person who all her life has put others first and still continues to do so.  Sinéad has shown an enormous strength, positivity and a huge amount of courage, despite how terrified she has been over the last six months. She is a true warrior and we feel she deserves one less worry in her life so that is why we have set up this go fund me page for her. 

Please donate anything you can to help her.

Background

Sinéad is 39 years old and originally from Dublin.  She is married to Vincent and they live in Maugherow in Co. Sligo with their two beautiful children Chloe (4) and Kyle (11months). Sinéad and Vincent met while working together in Dublin and after they got married, moved to Sligo. Sinéad worked as a retail manager prior to becoming a stay at home mum to Chloe and Kyle.

On January 18th of this year Sinéad’s whole world changed forever.  It started off as a typical Friday morning with Kyle, who was almost 6 months old getting his bottle, Vincent going to work and Chloe getting ready for pre-school.  Very soon however Sinéad started to notice a strange numbing/burning sensation that started in her feet and over the course of the next two hours moved up her entire body. Within a few hours she was paralysed from her chest down. She was rushed to Sligo General Hospital where she was diagnosed a few days later with Transverse Myelitis. Transverse Myelitis (TM) is a neurological disorder caused by inflammation of the spinal cord, which carries nerve signals from the brain to the rest of the body. It is a very rare disorder with about 300 new cases in the UK each year. It can affect anyone, at anytime, anywhere. Everyone is affected differently. Recovery is difficult to predict. Around one third of people with TM will make a good or full recovery. Another third will experience some recovery and may have a moderate degree of disability. The remainder will make little or no recovery and have a permanent disability. Recovery usually begins within two months and can continue for up to two years and beyond.


The treatment for Transverse Myelitis is a plasma exchange which Sinéad underwent in Tallaght Hospital in January. This is followed by very aggressive physical therapy. Sinéad has been in Sligo General Hospital from January untill April where power returned to her arms and slowly to her legs. She is now in the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dun Laoghaire for a 12 week programme of rehabilitation. While recovery is difficult to predict, Sinéad is fully focused on learning to walk again and returning to her family as soon as possible.  She knows that she has a long road ahead of her and that her life and that of her young family will never be the same again.

Sinéad is due to return home to Sligo in the middle of July. In order for her to do that, her home will require significant modifications to allow her use a wheelchair and other equipment required to continue her road to recovery.

Sinéad and Vincent are now facing an unknown period of time where Vincent cannot work as his priority is taking care of their two small children and Sinéad when she returns home.


Goal

Significant funds will be required to modify their home to make it wheelchair accessible and comfortable for Sinéad to further her recovery. Also to buy a modified automatic car. There will also be expenses required to complete Sinéad’s rehabilitation and Physio Therapy programme at home in Sligo. We her friends and family, would be hugely grateful if money wasn’t something they have to worry about at this traumatic time in their lives.

We are appealing to anyone who can to support this fundraiser for Sinéad to make her as comfortable as possible in her own home. We appreciate any help you can give to just lighten the load a little bit for her and her family.

Please help us to reach our goal for Sinéad and her family.



Sinéad and Vincent are extremely grateful for every single person who has offered support and best wishes  to date.

Thank you x