€250k needed to send Grace to hospital in US

A fundraising drive has begun in earnest to send an eight-year-old girl battling an aggressive cancer for the third time to America for a clinical trial.

Grace Kenneally from Tirellan Heights is currently on a short break during her third round of chemotherapy. A scan in April will determine whether the nueroblastoma tumour has shrunk sufficiently to allow medics to operate. That procedure is so rare she will have to travel to the UK where a specialist has had some success with removing tumours that close to vital organs.

However, a family friend, Jennifer Fahy Ainsworth, said it was now increasingly likely that Grace would have to be accepted onto a clinical trial if she was to avoid yet another relapse.

Any American trial would likely cost in the region of €250,000.

“Graces’s mam Ethna was reluctant to do any fundraising. She’s on her own and was totally focused on getting Grace better. She didn’t have the headspace to think about money. Nobody thinks you should have to think about money when it comes to your child’s life,” explained Jennifer.

“But we now face the situation that if we don’t raise this massive amount of money Grace might not have the best chance there is to survive this.”

Coffee mornings, a live gig in Monroes and other events have so far raised €18,000.

Jennifer is spearheading their biggest fundraiser yet in the form of a dinner dance at the Westwood Hotel on May 2.

Grace was originally diagnosed with Stage 3 Neuroblastoma in September 2010. She was treated with chemotherapy and surgery for six months but she relapsed in January 2012. A more rigorous regime followed in the form of stronger chemo, radiation and Cis-Retinoic acid, an oral chemo which ended in February 2013.

Following severe pain in her back, Grace was admitted to University Hospital Galway with suspected appendicitis. Further tests revealed that the tumour, which appeared stable in a scan on October 1, had doubled in size.

While there are no survivors of relapsed neuroblastoma in Ireland, Ethna has come across several children in the US who continue to live despite four and five relapses.

Grace is aware the tumour has grown. She had only just returned to a normal childhood over the summer following the removal of her medical tube, learning to ride a bike, mastering swimming, camogie and the trampoline.

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.