Bressie backs Glen’s operation fund

A worried mother has told how pop singer Bressie came to the rescue of her faltering campaign to raise funds to pay for life-changing surgery for her eight-year-old son.

Glen Wilkie, who has cerebral palsy and who cannot sit or walk unaided, has been accepted for an operation in the US in November.

But his parents Margaret and David, from Foynes, Co Limerick, have become increasingly concerned they won’t reach their €60,000 target.

Although they have raised €30,000 towards the treatment in St Louis Children’s Hospital in Missouri, they face a frantic race against time, as they have just been told they need to raise the rest of the money a month in advance of the operation.

Margaret said she’s got added reason to meet the deadline — to fulfil a promise she made to her dying mother, Elizabeth Lenihan. “My mother had been sick for a while and we were minding her at home. She died on Nov 29 last year, but it was her dying wish that we got Glen treatment to enable him to walk. The day before she died she said to me: ‘I’d love to see Glen walk, but I won’t have the chance now.’

“But I made a promise to her that we’d do whatever it took to make it happen.”

Margaret said a chance meeting last month with Voice of Ireland coach Bressie backstage at the Ballybunion Atlantic Sessions festival in Co Kerry, has renewed her confidence in meeting the deadline. Bressie was so bowled over when he met Glen he promised to do what he could to help.

The former Blizzards frontman even rang Glen the next day and promised him one of his prized guitars to auction off. He also made a generous private donation. * www.glenwilkie.org