‘Research is hope for any sick child, we need research to try and find a cure’

Research is hope for any sick child, says Ellen Macken Moloney, whose two little girls suffer from two very different, serious medical conditions.

Ellen’s youngest daughter, Poppy, was rushed to Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital in Dublin when she was just nine days old.

Within days of being admitted, the little girl from Longford underwent open heart surgery.

Ellen felt a rush of relief when Poppy came through. “It was the biggest relief in the world,” she recalled.

Poppy, now aged two-and-a-half, was born with five heart defects and has undergone open heart surgery three times. She is doing well now.

Ellen had hoped to settle her family into a routine as Poppy’s health improved, but that was not to be.

She noticed that her eldest daughter, Ava Lilly, was tired, out of sorts, and complaining of a pain in her arm.

Credit: Temple Street Foundation

It turned out that Ava, then aged four, had leukaemia and she too became a patient at Crumlin.

Ava, now aged five, attends school but the family’s routine is still unsettled, with both girls having to travel to Dublin for hospital appointments.

Poppy attends a creche but is expected to return to Crumlin next year for more heart surgery.

We have so much love for Crumlin because without the treatment and care the girls received, they wouldn’t be doing as well as they are,” said Ellen.

There are a number of parents, like Ellen, supporting the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation’s Crumlin Christmas campaign.

CMRF Crumlin is the charity fundraising body of Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital and the National Children’s Research Centre.

“Research is hope for any sick child. We need research to try and find a cure for childhood cancer,” said Ellen.

“And for children with congenital heart defects, research will improve the survival rates and improve treatments and surgery.”

Elaine McMahon’s daughter, Jessica, who was just nine months old when she had a heart transplant, will celebrate her fourth birthday next month.

Jessica, from Monaghan, survived eight months on a ventilator in Crumlin’s intensive care unit. It was a battle to keep her alive.

Jessica held onto life waiting on her new special heart and I think we held onto Jessica even tighter. Every day we sat by her side, hoping. The waiting was so difficult,” said Elaine.

In early autumn 2015, Jessica was flown by the Air Corps to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London for her life-saving heart transplant.

“Three years have passed by now. We’ve had three extra special years of pure love and joy with our daughter thanks to organ donation,” said Elaine.

Jessica has other health problems but Elaine said everyone at Crumlin has worked very hard to give her the best quality of life possible.

Elaine, who is also supporting CMRF Crumlin’s Christmas campaign, said keeping all of her family at home together for as long as possible is her dream.

After spending almost four weeks in the Children’s Heart Centre at Crumlin, Jessica is getting ready to go home again. “We are so looking forward to being home as a family. That’s my dream — all of us being home together.”

Jessica will continue to attend the hospital on a weekly basis to ensure she keeps well. “She lights up when she sees the staff. They’re like family now at this stage,” said Elaine.