Aoife (10) raising cash for charity after losing sight in her right eye

A ten- year- old girl from Riverchapel who has lost the sight in her eye as a result of cancer is determined that nothing will hold her back and is now raising funds for charity.

Not only has Aoife Lawless lost the sight in her right eye she only has partial sight in her left eye but she’s now determined to give back and will cut off her long tresses to raise cash for Barrettstown.

When Aoife was born her parents Colm and Catherine were told there was a chance that she might have a condition called neurofibromatosis. “We quickly realised that she did have it and one of the problems that can come from that are the little nerve tumours she got which was the driver for why she got sick,” said Colm.

In 2017, at four and a half years old, Aoife started receiving chemotherapy for an optic glioma in Children’s Healthy Ireland in Crumlin.

For over a year and half, she travelled to Dublin at least once a week for chemotherapy and she also spent time in St Gabriel’s Ward in Wexford General Hospital.

“They were unbelievable, they still ask about her and message me to ask how she’s doing. They gave us brilliant support,” said Catherine who’s a teacher in St Catherine’s Special School in Wicklow.

Colm took redundancy from Ulster Bank at the time and stayed home to care for her. Aoife missed a good bit of school during this time as she had to be in Dublin at least one day a week.

She finished her treatment in 2019 and since then she’s been adapting and recovering to her loss of sight.

“Aoife finds sight loss difficult and she uses a cane.

She has enough sight in her left eye to be functional and she gets a lot of support from Vision Ireland in terms of mobility training ,” said Colm.

She’s currently in 4 th class in Riverchapel Primary School and has a special needs assistant named Louise who has been with her since she started in junior infants.

“Louise is like a second Mammy, she knows when to leave her be and when to push her a little bit. She knows her really well,” said Colm.

Colm and Catherine have worked hard to build up Aoife’s independence and always encourage her to find a solution for herself before asking for help.

“She’s very good at finding ways around it, if there’s something she can’ t do she’ ll figure out a different way. Print something out in larger font or make something bigger for her to be able to see it,” said Catherine.

Aoife recently spent four nights at a sports and leisure camp called Camp Abilities in Limerick for children between 10 to 14 years old with vision impairment. “Not one bother on her. That was the first time she’d been away without family and she made everyone down there fall in love with her. It was a bigger problem for us than her but you couldn’ t tell her that.”

“Aoife loves Camp Abilities because it ’s kids that understand where she’s at in life. She likes having that peer interaction with others that are the same as her and she gets that at Camp Abilities and Barretstown,” said Colm.

Aoife doesn’ t let anything hold her back and enjoys her girl guides group in Ballygarrett, drama classes at Shining Bright Theatre with Lisa Gould and swimming lessons in Active Tribe in Courtown. “She’s a social butterfly and all she wants to do is be social and very confident in those areas so we picked activities that we knew vision wouldn’ t be a major obstacle for her. She absolutely loves drama, that’s definitely her favourite,” said Catherine.

Furthermore, as soon as her hair grew back and her treatment was over, Aoife decided she wanted to cut her hair and donate it to the Little Princess Trust, a charity that provides real hair wigs, free of charge, to children and young people who have lost their hair through cancer.

“She’s been through an awful tough time but the first thing she wanted to do is figure out how she can help others.

“She is sunny side up and to make it into a positive instead of a negative when her hair was coming out in clumps with chemo, Catherine came up with the idea of giving it to birds out the window so they could use it for nests.”

“She would’ve had bad days and good days throughout her treatment but she always tried to be positive,” said Colm.

Aoife along with her parents and her older brother Tom who’s in first year at Creagh College were at Barretstown on two occasions and the incredible respite they got there is the key reason her family set up a GoFundMe page to raise money for it. “When you go to Barretstown, you drive in the gates and kind of forget there’s a problem. Weekends are geared around the kids and the family, there’s very little WIFI so you’re kind of removed from everything and get the respite you’re looking for,” said Colm.

Their initial target was to raise € 1,000 for Barretstown but that was quickly surpassed as generous donations rolled in from their friends and family in north Wexford as well as Galway and Monaghan.

“We checked in every couple of days and sure enough the money was just ramping up and to get over € 4,000 was something that surpassed Aoife’s wildest imagination There’s great support from where we live in Riverchapel and Courtown and obviously Gorey as well,” said Colm.

The pot currently stands at € 4,120 and the family plan on visiting Barretsown in a few weeks to present them with a cheque of the funds they’ ve raised.

Ton donate to Aoife’s GoFundMe page log onto https:// www. gofundme. com/f/aoifes- bit- for- barretstown

SHE’S VERY GOOD AT FINDING WAYS AROUND IT, IF THERE’S SOMETHING SHE CAN’T DO SHE’LL FIGURE OUT A DIFFERENT WAY