Loving mother gave everything for her children

DEVOTED mother Susan Maher lived for her six children. She doted over them all.

She was one of Ireland’s unsung heroes, battling not just for her own children, but for the most vulnerable children in the State.

As secretary of the Children’s Heart Care Action Group, Susan Maher was instrumental in raising €127,000 for children who were waiting for heart operations.

She helped get treatment for a number of Irish children who had been on waiting lists here for up to two years.The money she raised funded operations in the Westmoreland Street Hospital, London.

Kilkenny County Council chairwoman and fellow campaigner for heart operation children, Teresa Mullen said Susan was a hero.

Even after Bobby’s surgery, she still helped fundraise to ensure other children would have a better life.

“There was no such thing as a mountain with her,” Teresa Mullen said.

“There were always going to be problems but Susan only saw solutions.”

The two women raised money tirelessly for years, along with other parents under the Children’s Heart Care Action Group to finance heart surgery for little Bobby and others.

Bobby was two when he had major surgery to fill a hole in his heart. They struggled to raise funds and battled to send him to London for surgery. After a long haul, their campaign was a success and London surgeons were able to help Bobby overcome the first of his many difficulties.

After heart surgery,Susan and her husband, Michael, faced yet another battle for Bobby, as they campaigned to get him sign, speech and language therapy.

None was available locally, so Susan took it upon herself to go to Dublin, such was her desire to be able to communicate with her son and help him converse with others.

As well as having congenital heart problems, Bobby has been profoundly deaf since birth. He only has 40% of normal hearing. And he cannot talk. Because the help he needed could not be provided locally, despite numerous pleas, the two travelled to Dublin daily.

Even after Bobby’s surgery, Sarah campaigned to help others.

“We worked very closely together for the betterment of all children. She worked tirelessly. She was the great communicator with Bobby. Knowing her, though, she would have insisted that other members of the family were able to communicate with him, too.

“It’s an awful tragedy. I was out there myself this morning and all her husband Michael could do was cry. They don’t know what to do or where they can turn. Nobody can quantify their loss,” Teresa Mullen said.

Just last Christmas, in an interview with the Irish Examiner, the busy mother revealed how she’d signed up for a sign language interpreting course in Trinity College Dublin, juggling trips to and from the capital with the demands of a very busy home in Co Kilkenny. She rose every day at 4.30am and arrived home at 9.30pm. While she was at Trinity, Bobby was getting the help he needed elsewhere in Dublin. “He’s an amazing child,” Susan then admitted, as she was amazed how well he’d recovered from his major heart surgery.

“We’re really looking forward to Christmas. We really never even dreamt that Bobby would be able to join in the festivities as much as he can.

“The operation and his recovery were an absolute miracle,” she said.