'Just stay in, it is not hard to do when you come from a world of childhood cancer'
The heartbroken mother of a toddler who lost his battle to a rare form of Leukaemia is behind a unique fundraiser to support a charity that will’ be needed now more than ever ‘as families try to cope with caring for a loved one amid a global health pandemic.
Lyndsey and Jason McKenna’s son Fionn tragically passed away from Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) aged just two and a half having undergone a bone marrow transplant and bravely fighting the disease he was diagnosed with eleven months earlier.
Just weeks after their little boy’s death grieving Lyndsey and her husband managed to heroically raise a staggering €20,000 for Aoibheann’s Pink Tie, an organisation that ‘were always there’ for her family in their time of need.
This year unable to organise an event childcare worker Lyndsey (31) has come up with a unique way for children to get creative at home and raise money for the charity and The fifth floor of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. ‘She said:
Lyndsey and Jason have organised a special poetry compeition to raise funds for Aoibhenann's Pink Tie and the fifth floor paediatric of Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda Hospital.
“Fionn passed away on May 29th last year. His 100 day post transplant was mother’s day and the next day he relapsed so we had to prepare ourselves for the worst and seven weeks later he passed away.
“It was devastating, he was our whole world and I still find it hard to talk about without getting a lump in my throat.
“After that we went into autopilot mode thinking let’s do something and let’s get focused and we managed to raise €20,000 for Aoibheann’s Pink Tie in Fionn’s memory.
“This year we have created a page on GoFundMe called ‘Fionn’s Poetry Corner’ and we are asking children to write us a poem about being stuck inside.
“Aoibheann’s Pink Tie were always just there for us. I never needed to ask for anything it was just done. I will never stop praising them, they are amazing.
“Along with them we are trying to get some funds for the fifth floor in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.
“This week they will be flat to the mat looking after children’s lines for chemotherapy, they will be doing blood work, dealing with high temperatures and they will have to do all of that in the chaos of Covid 19.”
'Every day your child is gone is one day that you try to make people remember them'
The mum of one is keen to point out that the concern and restrictions associated with covid 19 is nothing new to children going through childhood cancer.
“Unfortunately this week although we are facing a crisis we are worried about washing our hands and keeping ourselves safe that’s the reality for childhood cancer children all of the time. A common cold could kill them.
“That’s why I know the struggle parents are having now with listening to people not following the rules of social distancing. Just stay in, it is not hard when you come from a world of childhood cancer.
“Fionn was diagnosed in July 2018 and he was in constant isolation from that day until the day he died nearly eleven months later.
"It is our generation's time to come together, it might not hit your family and please god it won't but I never thought childhood cancer would hit my family but here we are.
“It’s ironic now to see people walking around with the masks because we would walk to the hospital and people would stare at Fionn wearing his mask. It was horrible and for so long I managed to say nothing and just remind myself that they didn’t understand.
“Myself and my husband had the conversation yesterday of can you imagine if this was happening this time last year when Fionn was dying and we wouldn’t know if we were going to be allowed to bury him, we wouldn’t know if we would be able to get to a hospital if we needed it, we are imagining that but there are families going through that right now.
Brave Lyndsey describes the harrowing moment little Fionn was diagnosed with Leukaemia.
“One part of you wants to scream, the other part of you wants to say right tell me what I need to do to right now to protect my child.
“He stormed his bone marrow transplant, he stormed every bit of his treatment. He had an amazing little fighting spirit, I don’t know where it came from in him but he just knew he had to.
“A couple of months later we went home and thought we were on the home stretch and then on the day after mother’s day we found out he relapsed. There is no comprehension for people who haven’t lived through it and I in no way want people to comprehend it.
“For his last seven weeks he was at home and he passed away here, I didn’t want him in a hospital, I didn’t want not to be able to just lie in with him and cuddle him.
“People often make the comment oh you are so strong but I just kind of took my cue from Fionn. He never lay under childhood cancer so I try my best to get up every day and keep going.
“The girls that I work with in Just Kids Crèche in Drogheda are so understanding, they never forget that I’m a mammy.
“They talk about him which for a grieving mammy is the best thing anyone can do because every day your child is gone is one day that you try to make people remember them.
“My child’s life is over but his memory is not.
“He was just the most incredible child and we knew there was something amazingly special about him from the moment we laid eyes on him.
"Fionn was kind hearted and gentle, he was so aware of other peoples feelings and surprised us daily with his kind little ways , he was also extremely funny and cheeky too.
“He loved to play superheroes with his daddy , go for adventures with his nanny (just over to the green ) and when the long days of medicine and hospitals was done he loved a cuddle and a song in bed with his mammy!"
“He was and is our whole world."
To get involved in 'Fionn's Poetry Corner' follow this link
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fionn039s-poetry-corner