Ballylanders pushing hard to support young Noah Quish
The community in Ballylanders are gearing up to raise much-needed funds for Limerick’s Little Blue Hero, Noah Quish, as he prepares to go abroad for treatment.
On Sunday, April 14, the village will play host to ‘The Noah Quish Road Run’ in association with The Morning Star Vintage Club, with the aim of raising much-needed funds for the young boy. Noah, who turned 7 this week, has extremely complex medical conditions - born with a heart condition, he has hydrocephalus, a chromosome deletion and laryngomalacia.
Recently, he saw his scoliosis surgery cancelled for the third time and last year, he underwent six brain surgeries after he contracted meningitis when a ventriculoperitoneal (CP) shunt inserted in his head to drain fluid from his brain became infected.
According to Noah’s parents, Una and John Joe, originally from Ballylanders, they plan to bring Noah to Chicago for speech and language therapy and feeding therapy in July. The family had originally planned to go to Mexico for Noah’s treatment last October, however this was postponed.
Avril Toomey Sheehan, who was involved in a previous fundraising run for Noah Quish with Tipperary Vintage Rally (TVR), said that at the time of the Tipperary run, Noah was unable to walk, however, at the launch of the Ballylanders run on Monday evening, he was running around and in good spirits.
“When we started out with Noah, he was five. I have known Noah for a long time, he is hospital buddies with my little one. He has fairly complex needs.
“When we had Noah at our run, Noah wasn’t able to walk. As you can see he is a lot stronger now. He was having a rough time but he's coming out the other side. We just need to get his spinal surgery and get him on the road to Chicago or Mexico to get him talking and walking and eating properly,” Avril said.
Chairman of The Morning Star Vintage Club, Noel O’Brien, explained that the upcoming ‘ Noah Quish Road Run’ is inviting owners of all tractors, cars, trucks and bikes, of all ages, to take part on Sunday, April 14.
VOLUNTEERS & SUPPORT WELCOME
Congregating at Ballylanders GAA grounds on Monday, Mr O’Brien thanked the local GAA for their assistance and invited all other local clubs and organisations to get involved and help out.
“What we’re hoping to do is build on the community spirit that was there yesterday (St Patrick’s Day). Anyone who was here yesterday, we had a fantastic day.
The weather made it, but the crowd that turned out for the parade saw a good parade. If we can build on that support that was shown to the parade, there’s no doubt it will make it a success for us,” Mr O’Brien said.
He also issued an appeal for stewards to ensure the smooth running of the event and outlined that a raffle will also take place to help cover costs.
“We can see the child, he’s in great form and we want to do what we can as a community and what we want is for it to be a community event more than just a vintage event. It’s the same people that are in all the clubs, soccer, GAA, we want it to be a community event rather than just solely our event,” he added.
Two routes have been marked out for the run on Sunday, April 14, with the tractors leaving Ballylanders, heading to Galbally by Mooreabbey, to Barna Cross and looping back to Bally' once again. Trucks will be heading in the direction of Lisvernane, turning right up the high road and returning by Burke’s Cross.
Registration on the day commences at 11.30am at a cost of €20, with the run departing the village at 1pm.
A GoFundMe page entitled ‘Noah’s long road to recovery’ has been open to donations since last year to assist with Noah’s medical costs, while updates on his journey are shared on social media at ‘Limericks Little Blue Hero Noah Quish’.