Carlanstown shows support for Saoirse

A family fun day in Carlanstown village on 4th September to raise funds for five-year-old Saoirse Gaffney was a great success raising over €4,700.  To date, €23,337 has been raised in Ireland for Saoirse who is now back in New Zealand having under gone surgery in Memphis, in the United States.

The fun day was organised to coincide with the closure of Carlanstown village during works on Owenroe Bridge.

While Saturday was a washout, the fun day enjoyed beautiful sunshine on Sunday as the local community enjoyed music and entertainment.

There was also a funfair, face painting, a bake sale and one of the big hits of the day was undoubtedly the ‘dunking chair’ with locals David Clarke and Martin Dawson among those who got a soaking. The committee would like to thank Carlanstown Kilbeg Community Development Association for their help in marshalling the event.

In recent months Saoirse was diagnosed with stage five bilateral Wilms tumours in her lungs and kidneys and was immediately flown from her home in Wellington to Christchurch for further tests and to commence treatment.
Saoirse is a daughter of David Gaffney (33) from Carlanstown who has settled in  New Zealand with his French born wife Svlvaine. The couple also has a one-year-old son Benjamin.
Saoirse had surgery on 30th August on both her kidneys in St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital, Memphis, which only accepts the most advanced and difficult cases of children’s cancer.
In an update on the ‘Support for Saoirse’ Facebook page, dad David told how the surgery went as well as they could have wished for and doctors were able to save more of her kidneys than expected. Most of her right kidney was saved and two-thirds of the left. However, while the surgery went well, David explained that the results of Saoirse's biopsy did not come back with great news.
He said: “We are so grateful to St Jude's for a successful surgery and for everyone who has helped us and some family get here. It’s tough to digest but the results of Saoirse’s biopsy did not come back with great news. She has an unfavorable histology result in the tumour taken out of her right side.
Ultimately this means a low response to current treatment and a higher risk of recurrence. This high risk comes with the need to intensify and add to the chemo and radiation treatment and come to terms with the additional potential side effects. Childrens Cancer is not an easy road to travel, but we have to remain optimistic that we can reach its end.”