US research hope for Aoife’s rare brain tumour
Some also passed on information gleaned from personal experience which the three-and-a-half-year-old’s family hope might give them a lead in finding a successful treatment.
But mostly they just wanted to let Aoife and her parents, Lisa and Tomas, know they were thinking of them after her story was highlighted nationally in recent days.
“The response has been excellent,” said Aoife’s uncle, Keith McGrane, who is spearheading an appeal for help in finding a cure and a campaign to raise funds in case the family need to go abroad for medical treatment.
“A lot of people are sending good wishes but others are giving us contacts they have in the US and some are parents who have children with brain tumours who are really going through the mill too.
"They are traumatic stories but it’s important to talk to these people because we might learn something from each other,” he said.
Aoife, from Dublin, was diagnosed a month ago with a rare brain stem tumour which doctors here have said is inoperable but there are promising reports from the United States where specialist medical teams are beginning to develop pioneering surgical techniques.
Anyone who has information they believe might be of help to Aoife can contact her uncle Keith by e-mail at the following address: keithmcgrane@yahoo.co.uk
Donations to her fund can be made through Permanent TSB, Lower Abbey Street, Dublin 1. Account number: 84959387, sort code: 99/06/01.
