Brave Orla’s crowning glory
Orla, aged 13, from Tullow, Co Carlow, the oldest of three children, lost her hair straight away when her treatment started.
“She never complains about a thing, but when she lost her hair it really hit her,” her mother Máire recalled yesterday.
The Jackman family from Tullow, Co Carlow, were in Barretstown, Co Kildare, yesterday for President Mary McAleese’s visit to mark the 9th Annual International Childhood Cancer Day.
“President McAleese admired Orla’s lovely brown wavy hair and the cream bow she was wearing when she met her. It meant a lot to her,” said Máire.
“When Orla lost her hair I bought her a wig that she wore on her confirmation day. That was the only day she ever wore it. She wore bandanas all the time and eventually stopped worrying about her hair.”
Orla, who started secondary school last September and will celebrate her 14th birthday in April, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia on February 9 last year. She is one year into her treatment had has another year of treatment ahead.
“Orla is currently on maintenance and doing really well. We are in a good place at the moment, To be told your child has cancer is devastating but to be told that it is treatable and curable is what you focus on,” said Máire.
“Orla has made all of this so easy for us. She is so humble and so gracious. We have always been close but we have such a good relationship now,” she said.
Barretstown, a camp designed for children who have been through a serious illness, primarily cancer, allowed the Jackman family the first opportunity to have fun together after Orla got sick.
Last October they joined a family weekend camp and the children intend returning to Barretstown this summer.
“Barretstown takes the sickness away for a while. It’s just a good place to be,” said Máire.
Barretstown chief executive Dee Ahearn said they were proud to mark International Childhood Cancer Day as this year they would pass the milestone of welcoming 20,000 children and their families from Ireland and across Europe since it was founded in 1994.
Chairman of the board, Maurice Pratt, said Barretstown, set up by the late actor Paul Newman, allowed children the opportunity to be children again, not just patients.
Every week in Ireland three children are diagnosed with cancer. Because of improved treatments, survival rates will have increased to over 90% by the end of the decade.
Consultant paediatric haematologist, Prof Owen Smith, said the multidisciplinary healthcare team at Our Lady’s Children Hospital in Dublin worked closely with Barretstown.
