Family asks for help to fund vital equipment

BY JULY of 2001, five-year--old Edel Ryan had made a few introductory visits to Ballagh National School in Tipperary, preparing herself for the big day in September when she would join the ranks of the junior infants.

But fate was to deal a cruel hand and when Edel eventually made her way through the school doors as a fully fledged pupil, it was in a wheelchair.

That July brought horror for the Ryan family of Clonoulty, a few miles west of Cashel, when Edel, her mother Joan and little brother Tomás were involved in a road crash with a dumper truck.

While Tomás, who was 2½ at the time, suffered a broken nose, there were more long-lasting implications for the others. Joan received severe head injuries which eventually resulted in all of the sight going from one eye and left 5% vision in the other, while Edel’s spine was injured just below her shoulders, leaving her without the use of her legs.

“It was a huge change to our lives, overnight,” recalls Joan Ryan. “It really was huge, but it was great to be alive. I was in hospital for about five or six months and Edel spent about eight months in hospital in Dún Laoghaire.

“It was very traumatic, but she has accepted it. Young people are very good for getting on with things. We have met so many people over the past seven years that are in a lot more difficult situations.”

Now 12, Edel remains a pupil of Ballagh National School and gets on with her life in a determined, positive manner. On a typical school day she gets up early and her family help her to dress, putting on a body brace to protect her spine.

Her father Tom drives her to school every morning — the local school bus is not wheelchair-accessible — and she is included in everything by teachers and classmates.

In the evening, homework done and dinner eaten, Edel tries to get in some exercise, strengthening her limbs with a special pedal bike and a walking frame that she can use with the aid of calipers attached to her legs.

Spare time is kept busy. Edel has learned to swim in the pool in Tipperary town; she plays the tin whistle with the Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann group in Cashel and is learning the piano.

“We try to give her as full a life as possible,” says Joan. “She can swim 20 metres now. She’s a very determined and very cheerful little girl, so we’re very lucky that way.”

Since she left hospital for good all those years ago, Edel has been largely dependent on her family, as well as support from neighbours, teachers and friends, for her physical wellbeing.

At the moment, support offered by the health authorities is limited to four physiotherapy sessions per year, so the Ryans travel to Limerick once a week to attend a private clinic.

Meanwhile, a new machine made in Switzerland and unveiled last year at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Dún Laoghaire briefly offered promise.

Even though the Ryans were invited to the launch and waited for an offer of some exercise treatment for Edel, they recently realised that outpatients would not be catered for because of a lack of staff to run the Lokomat machine.

“Edel was five at the time this happened to her and, at five, you want your child to do as well as they can. She may not ever walk again but we want her to be as healthy as possible and exercise is the main part of that.”

Joan herself was a teacher in Rockwell College before the crash and has since returned on a part-time basis, giving oral tuition in French and German.

She and Tom are determined that their daughter will not miss out on treatment that could be of huge benefit to her long-term health and the foundation with other parents of the Coiscéim Eile fundraising group is aimed at raising €300,000 for a new Lokomat machine for Limerick.

It would be located at the First Step rehabilitation clinic in Patrickswell.

“Edel has been going there for physio every week and they are absolutely committed and enthusiastic and dedicated physiotherapists. If we got the Lokomat it would belong to Coiscéim Eile and the clinic would staff it. It’s something that’s very achievable,” said Joan.

The group will do as much fundraising as necessary, but Joan says the donation of €1,000 each by 300 businesses in Munster would speed up the process.

“We’re prepared to do whatever it takes,” she adds.

* Donations to the fund can be made at Bank of Ireland in Cashel, a/c number 90406898 or contact Joan Ryan on 0504-42375.