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Please support this great cause with which Eoin has a close personal connection.

Aimee Toner 21st January 2009 – 23rd February 2010 RIP.

Aimee was born at 8.12am on 21st January 2009. She had a normal birth, textbook, no complications and was perfect. As she got older and started to grow we knew there was something wrong, she was a very unsettled baby and had all the signs of other conditions, she was constantly misdiagnosed. Finally at 8 months old she was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma (a very aggressive type of cancerous tumour) in her tummy. We brought her to Crumlin, from Wexford General, where she underwent a treatment protocol of high risk chemotherapy. She was in hospital every week for 3 days getting chemo. Because of the high risk high dose chemo she needed to try to treat her tumour, we were told she could get quite sick, become neutropenic (very low or no immune system), vomit frequently, loose her appetite, and a whole host of other awful side effects of the treatment. Aimee did extremely well throughout all of this, she amazed us and all of the team at Crumlin, one consultant said on one of the occasions we were there that she looked so well she shouldn’t be in hospital at all, she didn’t even look sick! People would sometimes look at me in disbelief when I told them she had cancer. She was always in good form, laughing and smiling and playing and it never seemed to bother her. The only visible sign was that she had an ng tube in her nose to her tummy, lost all of her hair from the cycotoxic drugs in the chemo and her appetite, although her love of ice-cream and chocolate was never affected (as you can see in some of the pics!).

She was ahead of her time in developmental terms, and at every check up she was doing things that a baby of a much older age should be doing. Aimee made it to her surgery date in January, and after a very, very difficult and risky operation she pulled through. Again she amazed the surgeons, anaesthetist, consultants and all of the medical team in Crumlin. She was only in ICU for a few days, on a ventilator for a very short time, came off most of her medication post op in record time and got home 5 DAYS LATER! We had been told to expect a stay of approx 3 weeks all going well and with no complications…

Aimee was truly an amazing and very special little lady, who during her life brought us, and everyone, so much joy, love and happiness. Unfortunately, despite all of her little medical miracles, Aimee sadly passed away when she was just 13 months old on Ballyconnigar beach in Wexford. One of her favourite places, she loved to go to the beach. Again she amazed everyone to even make the trip home, although it was a shorter trip than the usual 1.5 hours drive, we flew home by helicopter with her, organised under the circumstances by the fantastic team in Crumlin.

So, we are trying to raise as much money as we can, our target is €10,000.00, to help St. John’s ward achieve their dream of a new ward (with all the cutbacks in the HSE right now it’s a long way off without our and others financial support) and to aid research into a more successful treatment protocol for Neuroblastoma.

To support this great cause and to read more about Aimee click on the following links:

Aimee Toner Memorial Fund – Facebook Page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Aimee-Toner-Memorial/130953243611431

Sponsorship Page
https://www.cmrf.org/sponsorshipManager/Usr_EventDonation.asp?EventId=757