‘We know how much Luke would want us to have a Christmas so we are going to do what we can’

The heartbroken father of a popular young man from Navan who passed away suddenly last month say that the family will celebrate Christmas this year in his memory.

Luke O'Reilly passed away on the 28th November at the young age of 25 following a short stay in hospital after finally seeking help for his struggle with his weight, an issue he battled with for most of his life.

His devastated parents Anthony and Caroline O'Reilly were looking forward to welcoming their second eldest who lived in Newry with his fiance Leanne home for Christmas, but instead will have to get through their late son's favourite time of year with an empty space at the table.

But the Navan couple say they are determined to celebrate the occasion as a tribute to "loving and caring" Luke.

The much loved resident of Balreask Manor brother to Dean (29) Luke (25) Darren (24) Kerry (17) Leona (13) had returned back home in recent weeks with Anthony and Caroline confident their son would get back on track as his distraught dad explains:

'We thought he was finally in Navan Hospital and was getting all of the help that he needed. They had all of the plans put in place for him, I spoke to him on the Saturday on the phone and I said Luke finally we are getting somewhere and now you need to put your head down and get on with it and whatever they want you to do that's what we will do. "We video called him on the Saturday night just before we went to bed and we were talking to him and he just said he was very tired and Caroline said go on get some sleep and we will talk to you in the morning but unfortunately at 4am we got the call to go to the hospital.

"They must have tried for an hour and 15 minutes to try and get him back but unfortunately somebody had bigger plans and he wasn't coming back."

Anthony says his struggles really came to a head whilst working from home during lockdown. He added:

"He was quite a big baby when he was born but all through his younger life he was very active, he was playing football all of the time, he grew up here in Balreask Village so he was always out with friends here, that kept him in check. Then when he was in secondary school, Caroline would go up to his room and find empty sweet packets.

"We can understand someone who is an alcoholic or a drug addict, this was similar I spoke to him once or twice about it and he said 'Dad it is so hard, I just want to eat something'.

"Luke has always suffered with his weight and over the last ten months with working for himself from home, he would have been eating more than what we would have had him eating when he was here. You just get your three square meals a day here because we were conscious of his weight so Caroline would be strict on what we would all eat."

Luke finally reached out to his parents admitting that he needed help and returned to the family home in November as Anthony explains:

"He was really low at that stage, he was feeling that he had hit rock bottom. I knew because he said, I'm really sorry daddy and I said don't worry Luke we will sort this, and I was fully convinced that we were going to get it sorted."

After attending the family GP and being referred to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda where he was discharged being told they found nothing medically wrong with him, Luke came back to Balreask Village but was rushed to Navan hospital days later.

"The surgeon came into him on the Saturday evening and said we are going to refer to the Mater to get a gastric sleeve, they had arranged with Connolly Hospital to admit him urgently. They had contacted the obesity clinic in Loughlinstown where we could get help for him. Navan Hospital had all of the buttons pushed they were ready to motor ahead. I couldn't speak highly enough of them, they were fantastic.

"So when we got the call on Sunday morning, it was total shock. When the doctors walked into the family room we knew when we saw their faces.

"We went into the room to him and Caroline was still trying to wake him. It was like a nightmare and I just wanted someone to wake me up. It has devastated the whole family."

Anthony says that as a country we need to become more aware of the issue of obesity.

“From talking to the obesity clinic it is only in the last two years that people are starting to take notice of obesity in Ireland, it’s something that as a country that we need to be aware of. You don’t have to go to a gym and pump iron everyday, you can keep healthy by just going for one walk a day, if it’s only around your garden or up and down your street, it can make all of the difference.”

The devastated dad says he doesn’t want his son’s death to be in vain and has urged anyone with concerns about their health to seek help.

“Don’t let anything go, if it’s something even if it’s a little thing it can turn into a big thing, get it checked. Push whoever it is that you are talking to to get it sorted.”

Anthony says the family was inundated with messages from people from all over the world paying tribute to Luke.

"Luke was always very bubbly even as a child. He just loved to be among people. Every photograph we have of him in the house is of him smiling.

"You couldn't walk down the town with him here in Navan, you'd be standing while he was talking to people that you had never met before. He would be really well known in the town with being in the youth club, The Order of Malta, American Football with the Meath Bulldogs and he was in O’Mahonys when he was younger.

"When he passed, the amount of comments coming from all over the world, it was just unbelievable."

The family will do their best to enjoy their first Christmas without their son and brother as the dad of five explains: "We know how much he loved Christmas, he would want us to have a Christmas so we are going to do what we can."