At the age of just five months old, my son Fintan was diagnosed with a rare form of eye cancer called Retinoblastoma (Rb).  

During his battle over the following seven years he went through numerous treatments including two rounds of systemic chemotherapy, radiotherapy, radioactive plaque therapy, cryotherapy and a pioneering chemotherapy treatment; all of this made him feel nauseous, physically sick or in pain.

In February 2011 Fintan had to have his right eye surgically removed (enucleation) as the tumours were not responding to treatment.  Following another course of systemic chemo and a lengthy battle with his left eye, in April 2013 we had to make the extremely difficult decision to also remove this eye leaving Fintan completely blind but in doing so, cancer free.

Fintan coped amazingly throughout his battle with cancer and continues to amaze us in his new life as a visually impaired person.  He goes to mainstream school, has learned Braille, is learning to play the piano and generally is an outgoing 7 year old boy with an unstoppable energy (honestly, we wish sometimes it was stoppable!!).

The Childhood Eye Cancer Trust have provided us with both emotional and practical support throughout Fintan’s life and continue to do so.  Without CHECT I’m certain that our time as a family would have been much more difficult.  Over and above the support role, the charity also funds invaluable research into retinoblastoma and is continuously raising awareness for the disease with the public and the medical profession with the hope of increasing the early diagnosis of the condition that leads to better outcomes for the patient.

In 2009 I decided to run the London Marathon in honour of my brave little boy, thinking of his battle carried me to the 26.2 miles to the finish line.  Six years on I’ve decided to run again.  The journey I will go through with the training and the race itself will be tough but nothing in comparison to what Fintan has been through.

CHECT is a small charity with no government funding and relies entirely on the kind donations from people like you.  Please donate as much as you can to this extraordinary charity and help other children like Fintan.

During Fintan's battle with cancer we kept an account of his life on a blog about him. Read more about Fintan's life with cancer here: 

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