Home and away help that’s a class apart

MOLLY Kennedy details her Holy Communion dress with the delight of any eight-year- old looking forward to the occasion but while puffy sleeves, diamonds and flowers may be the order of the day, her illness is not.

She is one of fewer than 10 children treated each year in the Mercy University Hospital (MUH) in Cork city for one of life’s more invidious childhood diseases, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

Diagnosed at the onset of the last school year and energy-sapped by her illness, she managed just one hour of schooling at St Columbus Girls National School in Douglas during the months of September and October.