Making memories

WITH clear, nut-brown eyes and peachy pink cheeks, seven-year-old Orna Curley looks the picture of health. But three years ago she was seriously ill.

At first, she complained of a few aches and pains and a feeling of tiredness. Her parents were concerned, but not overly so, as she seemed to recover fairly quickly. About a month later, she was covered in bruises and, fearing the worst, her mother Carmel took her to see her family doctor. Within hours, she was rushed to Crumlin Hospital in Dublin as blood tests revealed she had leukaemia.

After years of intensive treatment, Orna has fully recovered, but Carmel also believes the two visits of the family — Carmel, her husband Paul and children Grainne, Aran, Orna and Ross — to Barretstown went a long way to making her little girl well again.

“On the June weekend three years ago, Orna said she had pain in her chest and was feeling really tired and cold,” recalls her mother, who works as a bookkeeper.

“We were going away for a few days and she wasn’t a bit excited about the trip. She recovered enough for us to stick with our plans, although she was still a bit out of sorts.

“Then she was fine again for a week or two, but she was losing weight. I remember the weather was lovely and we ate out on the patio, but Orna had no appetite and was wrapped up in a blanket. Then, when she was feeling good again, she was playing with her older sister Grainne, who was pulling her across the floor and, when she got up, she was crying that her back hurt. When I had a look, she was covered in bruises.”

The Offaly woman was alarmed because, when she was a teenager she had a friend who had leukaemia, so she immediately thought the worst and took her daughter to see the GP.

“I remembered that she [her friend] bruised really easily, so when I saw all the bruises on Orna’s back, I was so worried,” says Carmel.

“The doctor took some blood tests and sent us home. But hardly a couple of hours went by before we got a call from Crumlin hospital telling us to go back to the GP’s surgery, where we would make our way up to Dublin so Orna could be admitted.

“Both Paul [a shop manager] and I were terrified, but we had to be upbeat for the children. Orna was delighted with the adventure and couldn’t believe that she was going to be staying overnight in a hospital.”

But her excitement soon turned to distress, as the little girl underwent minor surgery a few hours after admission and began chemotherapy the following morning.

“Soon after we arrived on the ward, Orna had a broviac line put in,” says Carmel. “This is a catheter in the chest which is used to put in medicine and take bloods. Having that done was a horrendous shock for her and the next morning her chemotherapy began — within 24 hours of being excited about her trip to hospital, she was undergoing the harshest of treatment. Although all the doctors and nurses were absolutely fantastic, it was just so hard for a four-year-old to have to go through something so enormous.

“She had fairly intensive treatment after that and, although I made myself believe that she would recover, it was still heartbreaking to see her go through the chemotherapy and lose all her hair.”

Orna had two years of treatment at Crumlin and last September she was discharged.

“The first six months were very intense and Orna had chemo every week,” recalls Carmel. “Then it reduced to monthly visits until she was finally pronounced fit and well.

“She coped brilliantly throughout the whole thing, but it was a very long and difficult road for all of us. The hospital put us forward for a family visit to Barretstown in October 2010 and it did all of us the world of good.

“Initially, Orna was scared of everything, because the illness had knocked her confidence, but the staff were so good that, after a few hours there, I could see some of the old sparkle in her eyes.

“It was brilliant for the other kids too, because they were able to play without feeling guilty and we could all forget about leukaemia for a few days.

“The great thing about Barretstown is that no-one at any time refers to your child as being sick. They don’t ask how they are feeling or will they be able to participate in certain things — they just know what to do and really make all the children feel completely normal and allow them to be kids again.

“Every one of my family got so much out of our time there and it really helped my little girl to find herself again.”