Jonathan Lennon Story
"To a child who is battling cancer, your kind gift to Barretstown today is a ticket back to joy, laughter, and life this Autumn."
Meet Jonathan Lennon
``Cancer, the doctors said. It’s cancer. But the words were hard to register. My mind raced back to the beginning.``
Our estate, where the children would gather and play. Our three kids – Rebekah,
Jonathan, and Cara – nearly killing each other on a daily basis. Everywhere we went it was together. As normal as any family would be.
Then our football-mad Jonathan found a lump just below his collarbone.
He was barely six years old. And never in our worst nightmares could we have
imagined that lump would mean cancer.
None of that landed with me at the time. Not the journey to get here. Not the seven doctors standing before me – a dad about to hear that one of his children was seriously ill.
How it Began
It was in January 2019. Jonathan’s first tests were clear. No infection. No virus. But over Christmas he just hadn’t looked right to myself and my wife Ciara.
So that January day when Jonathan struggled to get out of bed, we headed straight for Temple Street. Everything sped past in a blur.
We brought our little boy in on the Saturday and he was admitted into the hospital overnight. They ran a CT scan and MRI images the next morning.
By eight o’clock on the Sunday night they came back and told us they had found suspected malignancies. Our world felt as if the whole bottom fell out of it.
We were transferred to Crumlin the following day.
Even as I’m writing our story to you, I’m thinking of how it’s Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I’m picturing the six children in Ireland each week on average, and their families who love them, receiving a childhood cancer diagnosis. I’m thinking of what they’re about to go through.
Understanding Jonathan’s Diagnosis
Jonathan’s diagnosis came only days after he was admitted into the hospital.
Large-cell anaplastic lymphoma. A kind of blood cancer.
Crumlin specialist Prof. Aengus O’Marcaigh said Jonathan’s cancer was like standing at the foot of a mountain. Their job was to get him safely over the other side. It was such a shock to us.
Like nearly everyone there is cancer in our families. But your child? You try to
process the words. Cancer... malignancy... lymphoma.
Our Jonathan was about to receive six different types of chemotherapy, over six months, to battle his cancer. Chemotherapy attacks cancer cells and healthy ones, his immune system would weaken. I could scarcely get my head around it.
His doctors were clear about how progressive treatments would get. He may be fine in the first sessions, they said. But as the weeks went on it would take a toll.
It’s so important to me that you come to know our family through my story today, and other families about to live through the same thing.
Passing Each Other in the Hallway
I want you to know how Jonathan kept a brave face. How his sisters Rebekah and Cara supported him the whole time.
And I want you to know the gratitude we feel that friends like you give from your heart to help a family like ours come to Barretstown.
A family pulled apart by treatments, so they can stay together. Hospital. Home. Even when you have a child with cancer, life marches forward.
You’ve people at home, outside the hospital. Uniforms have to be clean. Lunches need to be made. Inside you’re shattered. But you put life on repeat.
My wife Ciara and I were passing each other in the hallway, like the song. She’d stay
at the hospital for Jonathan’s chemotherapy the first night. I arrived the next day and she headed home. We did the whole thing in reverse the day after that. On and on it went.
Staying together through it all
Jonathan just seemed to grow smaller and more exhausted. He had to be away from his sisters. Away from the football he loved. Away from home.
I have no idea how we reached the countdown. Six treatments. Five. Four. Three. Then came removing the Hickman line they’d put in for Jonathan’s chemo.
You picture that moment for so long. And in all the turmoil you don’t realise how much you need a light at the end of the tunnel.
Through your gift of a magic ticket to Barretstown today, your kind gift of whatever you’re able, will be that light for a family facing cancer. I know, because generosity and kindness like yours made that same trip possible to Barretstown for my family – Jonathan, Rebekah, Cara, Ciara, and myself.
The Visit We’ll Always Remember
We’ll remember that visit all our lives.
Through six long months of chemotherapy we’d organised every detail of every day, while one of our own was so sick and so weak. But over our heads was this unknowable future for our little boy.
When we turned onto that forested drive into Barretstown, it felt like escaping into a secret world. The wildlife, the way it opens into fields.
I watched the anxious, uncertain faces of the ones I love break into beautiful smiles I hadn’t seen for so long.
The children most of all – but even the adults too. Everyone there felt it.
And the cottages you support that we stayed in, they’re joined with a common room in the center.
Built to bring children and families together. From that first night we got on like a house on fire with the family staying in the other side of our cottage.
We talked about our journeys. We laughed. The kids played. What a treasure. We still keep in touch with that family today. Caring like yours gave this gift to us.
A reminder that there could be better days ahead. The gift back to a normal family life that we all take for granted. A gift that is so precious.
And I’m so conscious that right now there is another family who stands in our shoes... another family who needs that outpouring of kindness you can give.
Healing Beyond Medicine: The Magic of Barretstown
We couldn’t have come without that help.
The horse riding, the fishing and archery, the secure space gifts like yours create with the Med Shed being right there night or day for children with cancer like our Jonathan had, and other serious illnesses.
The safe environment, designed for little ones who may still have vulnerable immune systems. The fun and accessible activities.
And the peace of mind you can bring this Autumn to absolutely exhausted mothers and fathers. The friendships you can nurture for siblings who’ve known such uncertainty so young.
The feeling for seriously ill children that there’s a way back to themselves.
Or as my wife Ciara says, “Crumlin looks after children medically. Barretstown heals their souls.” You can make that healing magic a reality.
I hope you will now, this Autumn, with a gift of whatever feels generous to you today, to cover time at Barretstown for another child. Donate Today
A Journey to Remission
What a relief it is to tell you that Jonathan is in remission. Year five of five.
We still have our share of worries. There’s been the odd health scare now and again,
and I think a part of Ciara and me will always be on tenterhooks.
But our boy has grown so much in five years. In all the ways that matter, he’s still our happy Jonathan. He’s still mad for Gaelic, still loves all food, and is still the protective brother – with his sisters very much at heart. He’s so thankful they were with him through all of it.
The Impact of Barretstown
There’s another gift you’ll give. A compassion and quiet confidence that builds in children through your support of Barretstown.
For Rebekah and Cara, the fear factor of seeing a child who’s sick, it’s gone – so much so that Rebekah wants to volunteer at Barretstown when she’s 16. We’d love that for her.
For Jonathan, he felt and still feels very privileged that people like you would go to all
those amazing lengths to create a place just for him. To know Barretstown was there
to give him the confidence to return to life after cancer. And if that’s not a magic ticket,
I don’t know what is.
Barretstown is one of the worthiest charities I know, and your gift of any size now will make a huge difference to a child’s life... and to their family who loves them. Thank you for helping today if you can.
Join Us in Making a Difference
I know there are lots of charities. Every one of them have their benefit. But there is a feeling you create at Barretstown...
Families come here from every walk of life. Everyone has a different story. Yet we
all face similar journeys, doubts, and fears. It takes such a lot to run the place, but there is always a gratitude for any gift no matter how big or how small.
The warmth of your kindness makes Barretstown possible. And if you speak to
anybody who has been to a therapeutic camp here, they will say the same thing.
Whether you can give all or part of a ticket to Barretstown this Autumn... whether
€35 to help support a camp activity or €432 to help fund a day, or something in between... for a child with cancer, for a family who loves them, it’s pure healing magic.
Hear from The Lennons – Garry, Ciara, Rebekah, Jonathan, and Cara
Barretstown helped us to find out normal again. Read the Lennon's letter in their own words about the transformative effect it had on the live of Jonathan and their family.
Lennon's Letter 💗💙You Can Make a Difference for Children like Jonathan. Donate Today
``You’re in our hearts. Now and always. Barretstown is here for us, because of you`` - The Lennons – Garry, Ciara, Rebekah, Jonathan, and Cara