Siobhan O'Flynn
Dylan, Romy and their Charity Chop
Fundraising for Little Princess Trust
Story
Dylan was diagnosed with stage 4 B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma in December 2016 at the age of 6. His aggressive treatment took 3 years & 4 months to complete, by which point we were at the start of the pandemic & had to spend a year shielding because his treatment had left him incredibly vulnerable. We couldn’t see our family & Romy & Dylan could only hang out on FaceTime.
Having emerged from shielding Dylan eventually went back to school 17.05.21.
He was thrilled to be able to see his friends & finally start to live as close to a normal life that he could after 4.5 years of enduring so much.
We’d originally planned to have his hair cut in the half term of October ’21 but Dylan was unwell in the lead up to half term & sadly ended up with a virus which left him completely paralysed from the waist down & blind in one eye; he was then diagnosed with transverse myelitis & optic neuritis.
We were told he may never walk again or that he might make a partial recovery, but if he was “lucky” he could make a good recovery.
Lucky is a word we struggle with as a family but we also know that within the nightmare of serious life changing health scares that Dylan has experienced at such a young age & in such quick succession of each other, he really is lucky & is on course for a good recovery from transverse myelitis.
He chose to fundraise for The Little Princess Trust because he knows how horrendous it is to have cancer.
Just a few months ago from his hospital bed, whilst in acute pain & unable to move he told me that he’d rather have transverse myelitis than cancer…I don’t think there are many children who can make that call due to their own personal experience.
Romy has only had tiny glimpses of time where her cousin hasn’t been receiving serious medical treatment & intervention; she was 22 months old when Dylan was diagnosed with cancer & 6 years old when he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis.
Throughout it all, she’s never stopped looking up to him with love & admiration.
I can’t think of a better duo to raise funds in such a wonderful way & for such a truly worthy cause.
I’m acutely aware that things are tough for so many reasons right now but if you could share this story you’d be helping 2 incredible kids do something huge for even more incredible kids.
Having emerged from shielding Dylan eventually went back to school 17.05.21.
He was thrilled to be able to see his friends & finally start to live as close to a normal life that he could after 4.5 years of enduring so much.
We’d originally planned to have his hair cut in the half term of October ’21 but Dylan was unwell in the lead up to half term & sadly ended up with a virus which left him completely paralysed from the waist down & blind in one eye; he was then diagnosed with transverse myelitis & optic neuritis.
We were told he may never walk again or that he might make a partial recovery, but if he was “lucky” he could make a good recovery.
Lucky is a word we struggle with as a family but we also know that within the nightmare of serious life changing health scares that Dylan has experienced at such a young age & in such quick succession of each other, he really is lucky & is on course for a good recovery from transverse myelitis.
He chose to fundraise for The Little Princess Trust because he knows how horrendous it is to have cancer.
Just a few months ago from his hospital bed, whilst in acute pain & unable to move he told me that he’d rather have transverse myelitis than cancer…I don’t think there are many children who can make that call due to their own personal experience.
Romy has only had tiny glimpses of time where her cousin hasn’t been receiving serious medical treatment & intervention; she was 22 months old when Dylan was diagnosed with cancer & 6 years old when he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis.
Throughout it all, she’s never stopped looking up to him with love & admiration.
I can’t think of a better duo to raise funds in such a wonderful way & for such a truly worthy cause.
I’m acutely aware that things are tough for so many reasons right now but if you could share this story you’d be helping 2 incredible kids do something huge for even more incredible kids.