We borrowed to pay, for our children’s sake
DEARBHAILE Garland-Monks borrowed from the credit union to vaccinate her children against all forms of meningitis after she saw the terrifying effects of the illness when her daughter was born with it.
Ms Garland-Monks rang RTÉ’s Liveline yesterday to encourage parents to vaccinate their children against meningitis B, even though it is not available for free for children born before October 2016.
‘Anyone who has been there will understand and say you will move heaven and earth to pay for it,’ she told the Irish Daily Mail.
Although she recovered from meningitis, her daughter, Nessa, sadly passed away a few months later from a rare heart condition.
She has since vaccinated son Rian, eight, and daughter Amy, three, who was born in January 2016 – months before the free vaccination programme was introduced. She and her husband Simon borrowed funds from the credit union to cover Rian’s two jabs, at €140 each, and the three for Amy, at the same price.
‘I’m a stay-at-home mother and there is only one wage coming in and I just said: “Prioritise”. We have to get these injections because I will never forgive myself if something happens the children,’ she told Joe Duffy.
‘I would prefer that no stone was left unturned, that my children were as safe as I could make them. So if that meant borrowing, then I had to do it’.
‘It’s a struggle and I have to sacrifice other things but their health is more important,’ she said.