Meet Caoimhe Cullen

The Hardest Diganosis

I said to Daryl that day, the same as any parent might have, ``There’s no need for us all to go to A&E...Tomorrow we’ll get going on our holiday.`` It was a holiday that would never happen.

Two hours later I heard the words ‘mass’ and ‘tumour’ used in relation to Caoimhe for the first time. A Wilms tumour was growing on her kidney.

Our little girl was scheduled for chemotherapy every Thursday for five weeks leading up to surgery. We’d travel up from home, she’d have the chemo and be really sick for a couple of days. It became our new normal. But there was nothing normal about it.

When her surgery finally came at the end of September, the tumour was so much bigger and so much more aggressive than anyone anticipated. Surgery and recovery was seven hours. Then eight and a half more months of chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy.

Giving it socks!

Caoimhe was still in treatment when your kind support helped us go to our first camp at Barretstown. I had to stop work by then, and camp was such a gift.

I had shown Caoimhe a picture of the castle. For her it was the place she’d see Emily and Muirioch again, her Barretstown friends from the hospital.

To see her little face light up when they were both there to greet her, then when we saw how much she could do despite still being in treatment was incredible.

From kayaking to arts and crafts to the climbing wall, there wasn’t a single thing on the list of amazing activities that she didn’t do that day. Some of them twice!

It was as if in her head she said, ``This is my day, it’s my special day. Right down to dancing for her lunch. I wish you could have seen her giving it socks! You gave that memory to us during dark days. A memory of happiness.

Courage and Dragons

You can see from her photo that Caoimhe was still in treatment then, another piece of your support that’s so special because the medical team and Med Shed were there for us 24/7. Knowing that Caoimhe’s medical needs would be taken care of gave us such peace of mind.

She was still weak and fragile but totally in the moment, and when she came down off the climbing wall, the sense of achievement that you could see in her face – she was glowing.

Having the chance to include Aoibheann, her little sister, in camp thanks to the strength of your support, to see the two of them dressed up and hunting around to find a dragon, there were no fears or worries. The play you support is truly therapeutic at Barretstown, and they were immersed.

Join Us in Making a Difference

I keep all the Barretstown photos together on my phone so I can look back to see how much it meant to Caoimhe, and to all of us. I wish everyone knew the depth of supports that Barretstown provide for children in Ireland with cancer and other serious illnesses.

We’d walk the journey alone without friends like you to give, and I wouldn’t want any family to face that.