Big Apple hope to help Megan

THE Clare family of a little girl battling a rare form of cancer have begun a campaign to help send her to New York for potentially life saving surgery.

Megan Malone is just three and a half and just last month, she was diagnosed with a highly malignant brain tumour, as well as multiple smaller tumours in her brain and her spine. Since then, she has been treated in Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. 
She is from a well-known Clare family, being the granddaughter of Michael John and Kay Malone from Ballyalla. Megan’s father John and mother Sheila now live in Cork with the rest of their family, including four-week-old baby Tristan.
Since her diagnosis, Megan’s family in Clare have rallied around, gathering support for the massive fundraising effort, as treatment in America is set to cost hundreds of thousands of euro. There have already organised a night with sporting legends in December, with more events planned for the future.
Megan’s aunt Áine explained, “Up until recently Megan was a healthy little girl. She just had a short illness of a couple of weeks and then she was diagnosed with this. It’s extremely rare, only two children in Ireland are diagnosed with such tumours a year and these children wouldn’t usually be as young as Megan.”
Speaking about Megan’s parents she said, “It’s been so hard for them and they have a new baby at home as well. But they’re very strong, Megan is very lucky to have such a good dad and they will fight to get her the best treatment, wherever that may be.”
The family have researched Megan’s condition and have spoken to doctors in New York who are confident they can help her.
“They have said that the tumour will inevitably have to come out to have any chance of Megan surviving. In Ireland they have never treated a child as young or ill as Megan; they’d never actually seen it.
“When my brother spoke to the neurologist in America, he said he had treated children with this condition as young as Megan and with such progression of the disease. He has had a lot of success, he has had some failures as well, but he has certainly had quite a lot of success and feels quite confident.”
Megan may have to spend up to two years in New York receiving treatment. “The cost really depends on how well Megan does and she could be there for a few years. The plan is for the whole family to travel, they are very close and they couldn’t stay apart for that length of time,” said Áine.
Áine revealed that Megan is the third grandchild on her mother’s side to have been diagnosed with cancer.
“Thankfully, one of her cousins has been given the all clear from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, while another cousin is just 11-months-old and receiving chemotherapy, but is responding well. We’re hopeful that because two of the family have done so well, Megan will follow suit.”
As part of the fundraising, a special night with sporting legends will be held in the Auburn Lodge in Ennis on December 3. “There will be lots of sporting personalities attending, not just from the locality but legends from throughout Ireland including some of the Munster team,” explained Áine.
There will be a questions and answer session with the guests, who will also be bringing signed sports memorabilia to auction. “They will be bringing items, the signed jerseys are sure to be popular, they would be great for publicans to hang in their pub, or make a great Christmas present for somebody.
“We are also looking for donations of memorabilia and items we can raffle. So far people have been very generous and we’ve only just started organising, so there will be plenty of prizes on the night,” she said. There will be music, food and DJ Ollie Mullooly will be playing.
“The tickets cost €10, so even if you can’t make it on the night it would be great if you could buy a ticket to support the event,” she said.
Aine added that individuals who want to host their own fundraising events for Megan are more than welcome.
A bank account has been set up for donations to the fund at Ulster Bank Ballincollig, account number 10117900, sort code 985482. A website has also been set up at www.meganmalonetrust.org and you can check out the face book page Megan Malone Trust.