Family hope Santa can lift spirits of 4-year-old Sean Doran who's fighting cancer

A mum and dad are doing their best to help Santa Claus find the perfect forklift truck for their 4-year-old son who is fighting a very serious form of childhood cancer.

Mon, 09 Nov, 2015 - 00:00

Elaine Keogh

However, they are worried that Santa might have a difficult time finding one and for that reason they are asking people for their help.

Sean Doran, “loves tractors and farms and has set his heart on getting a fork-lift truck on Christmas morning this year,” his mum Nicola Skehan explained.

Along with Sean’s dad James and his big brother Dylan, 9, they want this to be a memorable Christmas for the family.

Sean Doran (4) from Thurles is fighting neuroblastoma for the second time.

They have already helped Santa by looking in all the major toy stores on his behalf. They have not found anything that would be big enough for Sean to ride around in.

“Sean is tall for his age and anything we have seen so far has been too small and looks like it would not take a bump or two,” Nicola explained.

The family, from Thurles, Co Tipperary, had hoped that Sean would be in remission and cancer-free this Christmas but just as he was about to finish an intensive treatment programme for stage four neuroblastoma, doctors discovered he had in fact relapsed and he is now fighting it for the second time.

Nicola and James are very proud of Sean and how strong he has been.

“He had frontline treatment over 18 months that included high-dose chemotherapy, surgery to remove a tumour in his stomach, stem cell therapy and then immunotherapy. We were at the end of that treatment programme when we were told he had relapsed,” she said.

Sean developed a tumour near his eye and tests showed the cancer was in his eye and his bones and “the consultant hopes to get him into remission but they did tell us the chances are not too good, they are in the region of 5% to 10%.”

The family and the doctors are not giving up and they want to ensure that Sean has the best Christmas possible.

Nicola and James said: “It would mean the world to Sean and us if he got the forklift for Christmas. Christmas is very to special to us now when we don’t know what is around the corner for Sean.”