Carlanstown fun day planned in support of Saoirse

A FAMILY fun day to raise funds for five-year-old Saoirse Gaffney will take place in Carlanstown village on Sunday, 4th September.
The event has been organised to coincide with the road closure in the village for works on Owenroe Bridge, and promises to be a great day for a great cause.
Saoirse is a daughter of David Gaffney (33) from Carlanstown who has settled in Wellington, New Zealand with his French born wife Svlvaine. The couple also have a year old son Benjamin.
Earlier this summer. Saoirse was diagnosed with stage five bilateral Wilms tumours, which are in both her kidneys and lungs, and her family had just hours to pack a bag and fly to Christchurch where Saoirse has been undergoing treatment.
Dad David told how Saoirse has had a number of scans in recent weeks and the results were both positive and negative.
He explained that her most compromised left kidney responded well to chemo, and two of the smaller tumours on the right kidney were no longer visible, but the main mass did not respond to treatment. Until a biopsy is done they won’t know why.
“Bilateral Wilms tumour is very rare and with such limited experience here, we reached out to St Judes Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. St Judes pioneered the kidney sparing surgery Saoirse needs, which is now best practice globally.
“St Jude is the patron saint of lost causes, and St Judes only accept the most advanced and difficult cases of children’s cancer. We are glad to say that Saoirse was accepted there for surgery. Whilst this is only one hurdle, we feel we are giving her the best chance to avoid kidney failure, the need for an organ transplant and 3+ years on dialysis.
“The surgeon that will work on Saoirse is regarded as one of, if not the best in the world, and he feels after the last scans he might be able to save some of both kidneys,” said David,
He added that thanks to everyone who had helped them, they are able to get some family over to the US to be there to support them through what will likely be a tough surgery. The post surgery chemo treatment and abdominal radiation therapy will be driven by the results of the biopsy.

 

Saoirse Gaffney with parents David and Sylvaine

Upon diagnosis, Saoirse had 19 tumours on her lungs that spread from her kidneys, scans show that four of these tumours are now visible.
“It may have been a hope and a prayer but we were wishing that with such strong chemo it would be clear. As they are not clear its pretty evident that she will need full lung radiation on both sides to aggressively kill what is left.”
The Gaffneys are concerned about the side effects of the treatment and one of the chemos Saoirse has been receiving is known to affect the heart and the addition of radiation greatly increases the risk of cardiac failure,
David told how they are currently reaching out to specialists in the US and Australia to see if Saoirse can be treated at centres that can utilise some of the major advancements seen in radiation therapy in the past few years.
“We know we have a long road ahead of us, but are putting everything into mitigating as many risk as we can. The unbelievable support we have been given gives us strength and hope that we can find our way wthrough this,” he said.
At home the Carlanstown and surrounding communities have been rallying around to help the family. Various fundraisers have already taken place and a recent fundraiser in the Martry (formerly Silver Tankard) raised a fantastic €4,000.
A Facebook group 'Support for Saoirse’ has been set up with details of upcoming fundraisers and more details on the family fun day will be circulated in advance of 4th September. Already conformed is lots of entertainment with live music, pig roasting, bouncy castles, raffles and much more.