Written 2 weeks ago by Angel Croitor

---

Jean Donnelly, from Kilcormac, will be joined by her friend Gemma Fletcher in New York City to take part in a marathon as they aim to raise funds for Temple Street.

Jean’s motivation to take part starts at home with her son Henry who was born in June 2015 with post natal diagnosis of down syndrome. At the start Henry was feeding very well and ended up in SCBU (special care baby unit) for a couple of weeks. After that the decision had been made to send Henry to Temple Street to further investigate his health issues.

Henry stopped breathing in November of that year.

“He ended up having a lot of breathing difficulties – for his first birthday they gave him a tracheotomy.”

After that ordeal the hospital had decided that Henry was fit and well to treat him for leukemia as he had always suffered with TAMs (transient abnormal myelopoiesis). For four to five months they moved Henry to Crumlin to undergo the treatment. This was completed in January of this year after which he was brought back to Temple Street for monitoring.

“We’re now looking at getting him home for the end of October – just before Christmas hopefully.”

When Henry became very sick in November 2015 his father Robbie decided that someone needed to be in Dublin with him full-time and took it upon himself to be that person. Jean says that it is a lot of juggling of their time and resources to make sure that the rest of the family gets to carry on with their daily activities.

The run in New York City will take place on November 5th. Jean and her friend Gemma will run with 50,000 other people and causes in the marathon. They hope to raise €10,000 between them and after join a team of 15 people raising money specific for the hospital.

“Half of the money will go to the respiratory department to buy equipment for other children – the other half will go to the playroom where Holly and Tiernan have been looked after so brilliantly whilst we’ve gone to appointments.”

Gemma, Jean’s friend partaking in the marathon with her, says that the training regime has been a juggle of early mornings and late evenings and bad weather given the time of year. She rebuttles that none of that compares to what Henry’s family have to juggle in their daily lives.

“None of that is anything in comparison to the juggle that’s going on in Robbie and Jean’s personal life with Henry and the juggle that goes on for the staff in the hospital.”

If anybody is looking to contribute to the cause you can do so by signing sponsorship cards in the local Kilcormac area or visit the Running For Temple Street Hospital GoFundMe Page

---