Fund set up to help family of little girl struck down with rare illness

Family friends of a little girl from Wicklow who has been struck down with a rare illness have set up a fund to help with her family's living expenses.

Poppy Mernagh, who is just two and a half years old, contracted enterovirus and pneumonia late last month which led to her developing a condition called Transverse Myelitis, that only affects one person in 800,000.

The condition causes inflammation to the spinal cord which can in turn cause damage to nerve fibres which may be irreversible.