Community rally to raise funds for Sarah in face of rare disease

A brave Cork girl is refusing to give up hope following an unsuccessful operation to improve the heartbreaking impact of a rare disease on her eyesight.

The community of Belgooly are continuing to pull together to raise funds for the family of six-year-old Sarah Connery.

Her mother Sarah (Sr), who currently resides with the family in London, hails from the area and hopes to make it back to Ireland after her daughter concludes her medical treatment.

The young girl has been diagnosed with a rare disease called Wagner’s Syndrome. The condition has resulted in the detachment of her left retina causing a build-up of vision-obscuring gel in the back of her right eye.

Sarah now has a cane to help her navigate her way around the house.

Fundraising is currently taking place to provide modifications to the family home. It is hoped the adjustments will improve Sarah’s quality of life as she struggles with the illness.

The fundraising efforts come five years after Sarah lost her older brother Joseph who succumbed to another rare disease when he was just four.

Sarah recently underwent surgery to drain the gel from her eyes which proved unsuccessful.

The six-year-old also suffered a devastating reaction to her chemotherapy treatment which she is currently undergoing due to the risk of her illness progressing to cancer.

An instrumental ABBA tribute will be performed by electric guitarist Girish Paul as a fundraising opportunity for Sarah on Saturday June 24 in the Huntsman, Belgooly at 10pm.

Sarah’s grand-aunt Catherine O’Brien Murphy hopes the funds will be a lift for the family following Sarah’s unsuccessful surgery.

“You have some hope until you are knocked back again. It’s a horrible, horrible disease,” Catherine said.

“We knew that the operation might not be a success but we had hoped for it.

“Just nine days letter Sarah was told that the operation had not worked and the gel was building up again.”

The family faced another hurdle after Sarah reacted adversely to chemotherapy treatment.

“Last Thursday she had been in for her normal chemotherapy. However, within minutes of the treatment she started to go blue and her lips went purple.

“She got a terrible reaction to it and became very ill. It was scary to see because, after Joseph passing away, [it] has caused all the memories to come flooding back.”

She explained how important the funds are to the family.

“Sarah got her little cane about two or three weeks ago.

“It’s extremely important that we get the work done to the house because the family still need more help.”

She said Sarah, who has two siblings (Khloe, 10) and (Kasey, 21), is keeping the family going during the difficult ordeal.

“Sarah is the most bubbly child you could ever meet. She has this lovely and sweet. This is what has been keeping the family going.

“I’ve seen what Sarah has to go through and the amount of medication she has to take and she is one determined little girl.”

She added that the family are trying not to look too far into the future.

“They don’t know what’s down the road and can’t look too far into the future. They are just taking things one appointment at a time.

“Our hope is that they can have peace of mind and a nice little play area for Sarah.”

Donations can be made by contacting Catherine O’Brien Murphy, at 087 9411175, or to the gofundme.com page, ‘A Chance for Sarah’.

The family have raised €3,095 of their €8,000 fundraising target to date.