Aoife Lawless Story
"Will you match Aoife’s generosity, kindness, and love,
and give the gift of healing magic this Christmas?"
A Heartfelt Message from Aoife's Family

Meet Aoife Lawless
``Our ray of sunshine Aoife starting chemotherapy. We had no idea what we were about to face!``
I’ll never forget the Christmas before our Aoife turned five. The Christmas we learned that our beautiful, sunny-side-up girl would need to start chemotherapy immediately after the holidays – to try and slow a tumour that was growing in the exact wrong place in her eye.
It was a blessing we were so naïve at the time. Because as helpless and grief-stricken as we felt, it was nothing compared to the emotions we’d feel through Aoife’s 84 long weeks of chemotherapy.
How does anyone prepare for the shock that their child is seriously ill?

The Start of Lawless’s Fight
Nobody has children thinking there’s going to be a problem.
But there we were that January day, walking down the hallway to Crumlin’s St. John’s ward for children with cancer. Holding our Aoife’s hand down what Catherine calls the longest corridor. Knowing chemotherapy was at the other end.
In went the ‘Freddie’ line into her chest, a kind of port to make it easier and less painful for her to receive treatments and intravenous fluids down the road.
That first round of therapy made Aoife violently ill for hours and hours.Seeing pain wrack her body while she was still so small, and being powerless to help, was one of my hardest moments. I couldn’t conceive how she’d make it through.
Aoife would need over a year and a half of chemotherapy to stop the tumour’s growth. Eighty-four endless weeks.
Every decision our family made centred around the treatments.

The Impact of Treatment
Family life revolved around protecting Aoife. Around bolstering her spirits. We were all bone-weary.
Our sunny-side-up girl grew sad and anxious. Her golden princess hair fell out in clumps, and she was completely exhausted all the time. If I’m honest, we all were.
It was so hard on Aoife’s brother, Tom. Our little man was only eight. With the
schedule in constant motion, he never knew who would collect him from school. He couldn’t have friends over, and his sister was going to the hospital all the time.
You feel a million miles away from being a normal family. Your heart breaks for the loss of that future, while you try to be upbeat for your children.
It was Mary our social worker at the hospital who told us about camp. She told us how almost everything at Barretstown is made possible out of the pure loving kindness of people who give.
She described how the generosity joined with that of others across Ireland. How
donations give incredible kids like our Aoife and Tom, and parents like myself and Catherine, the chance to rest and reset at a time that feels endlessly dark.
Please will you give a gift today if you can, to sprinkle magic this Christmas in their lives by giving another family like mine the chance to come to Barretstown? Donate Today

Barretstown: A Place of Healing and Joy
``It felt like magic even then, and words can never describe the gift of healing that Barretstown's donors gave to us.``
Aoife had chemotherapy the day before we arrived. Even on the drive over we had to stop two or three times because she was so sick, something that had always stopped us from being able to go anywhere or do anything.
But at Barretstown we didn’t have to be on constant alert. Nurse Siobhan and the Med Shed were there. Hardworking, caring staff and caras were on site, 24/7. And happiness was everywhere.
Finally we could just be our little unit of four, a family together again. With other families going through the same thing.
The joy, the laughter, the escape from our worries, camp truly is healing magic. A harbour in the storm. That magic stays with you, even when you leave.
Whether horse riding (Aoife’s favourite!)...dancing for dinner (Tom became a master at this)...archery and rock climbing... or even time to walk and talk on the peaceful castle grounds, the generosity of donors can sprinkle much-needed magic over the life of a child with serious illness – and their family who loves them.
Barretstown help their confidence soar. Not just during that single camp, but for life.

The Healing Power of Camp
Barretstown reminded Aoife of what’s possible.
Since first coming to Barretstown, for the past four years our little girl Aoife has never veered from her dream of becoming a Speech and Language Therapist.
Thanks to that long chemotherapy journey she didn’t lose all her vision. But because of the neurofibromatosis, there isn’t much of her eyesight left.
She told us, “You don’t need full vision to be a speech therapist. You only need to be able to listen to people to help them.``That’s her kind heart coming through.
And my wife Cat and I know it was your kind heart reassuring Aoife that even though she uses a mobility cane now to find her way in a sighted world, there is so much she can still do and be.
You’ll help siblings like Aoife’s big brother Tom as well, in giving. From that very first camp, one of the male caras saw how much Tom was hurting during those days. He became a role model for Tom. He listened, he understood, he just helped process everything that Tom was going through.
Serious illnesses like cancer force children to face big, adult issues.
The training provided to every volunteer ``cara`` gives them the skills to
help sick kids – and siblings – be just kids again.

The Impact of Barretstown
There’s one more part of Aoife’s journey I want to share.
This past summer Aoife was thrilled for the chance to attend camp on her own, and at the end there was a slideshow presentation of camp highlights.
The second she saw it was a slideshow, she knew that with the tiny bit of vision she has left, she would never be able to see it.
Aoife’s eyes filled with tears when she told Catherine and me how the caras had worked out to give her the whole video on a tablet she could hold in her hands.
“I looked up and tried to see the slides, and I had no hope. So when the caras put the tablet in my hands, it felt really special. I felt loved and appreciated.”
Being loved and appreciated, precisely for who they are and where they’re at in their journey with serious illnesses like cancer, is the best healing magic of all.
Sprinkling some Christmas Magic over families like Lawless's Family. Donate Today
``Tom‘s wish for Santa and his reindeer this Christmas is to please help the kids who are sick. For a family just receiving the news that their child is seriously ill, your gift can bring this healing magic. Thank you again with all our hearts.`` - The Lawless – Colm, Catherine, Tom, Aoife and Benji.