Cork dad recalls day his daughter started speaking again after tumour impacted speech

A Cork father has recalled the day his daughter began speaking after a brain tumour robbed her of her voice.

James O’Riordan, 42, from Cloyne, his wife Michelle, 38, and their daughter Leah spent 42 nights in Ronald McDonald House in Dublin during Leah’s treatment.

It was there, when Leah’s younger sisters came to visit, that she started talking again.

“Leah had stopped speaking because of the tumour, and that day, when her sisters came up, she started talking again,” James said.

“It was a huge thing, having her sisters there. It was the safety blanket of the House.”

The O’Riordans joined thousands of other Irish families last Saturday to celebrate McHappy Day - a special nationwide fund-raising day hosted by all 98 McDonald’s restaurants across Ireland in aid of Ronald McDonald House Ireland.

On McHappy Day, €1 from every qualifying main meal ordered in a McDonald’s restaurant or via home delivery was donated directly from McDonald’s to Ronald McDonald House Ireland, helping to fund its support for families with seriously ill children across Ireland.

Leah, now 12, was eight when she was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a brain tumour, in 2023. Her illness had begun slowly.

Around Christmas, 2022, she was feeling unwell; by the following March, she had developed a blockage in her brain.

“At first, we thought it was just the flu,” James said. “Her temperature was high and she was sick in the morning.

“Then Michelle realised there had to be more to it.”

James was working a night shift when his wife called him. He came home and took Leah straight to Mercy Hospital in Cork.

“A doctor noticed a small black dot at the back of one of her eyes,” James said.

“She had an MRI and then we were rushed to Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin to relieve a blockage of fluid in the brain,” James said,

For a short time, life settled down. Michelle gave birth to their youngest daughter, Maci, and Leah made her First Holy Communion.

Then, Leah crashed her bike for no apparent reason.

“Michelle had this motherly feeling that something was wrong,” James said.

A shock diagnosis changed everything.

“Our whole world was turned upside down because we’d gone from thinking it was the flu or a terrible bug to being told she had medulloblastoma,” James said.

Leah’s speech and movement became restricted as the tumour affected her. Eventually, she was confined to a wheelchair.

“Her brain wasn’t telling her internal organs to work,” James explained. 

“We got to the point where we thought we were going to lose her in July, 2023.”

James later learned Leah’s tumour was stage four. “I thought she was going to die,” he said.

He remembers carrying his daughter from a shopping centre in Dublin after she collapsed one evening. “I thought that was it. That was the last time she walked for ages.”

In early August, just before Leah began radiotherapy, James, Michelle and Leah were given a room at Ronald McDonald House near the hospital.

James said they initially tried to shield Leah’s sisters from it “because it’s a big place with a lot of sick children”. But the House soon became a place where the family could be together, away from the strain of the ward.

James also recalled that when Leah began losing her hair after radiation, she made the decision to shave her own head.

“She decided there was no point waiting for it to fall out,” he said.

“I bought hair clippers and told her to shave my head too. That was incredible. It’s a very emotional memory.”

The visit from Evie and Maci, however, is the one that stays with him.

Maci was around three months old when James’s mother and brother brought both younger daughters to Dublin. It was during the summer; James, Michelle and Leah had been in Ronald McDonald House for three days.

“I remember Michelle taking baby Maci in her arms,” he said. “It was very emotional. It felt like a home from home.”

For Leah, seeing her sisters was more than a happy family occasion - it brought back her voice.

They also found companionship among the other parents there.

“You’re part of a big family,” James said. “The House isn’t traumatic for the children.

“They always want to go there. Leah loved it and so did the other two.”

James added that the girls loved the ‘Magic Press’ in the House - a special toy-filled room where young patients and their siblings can pick out a free gift or toy when they are undergoing challenging medical treatments.

He added: ”They all got a ticket and got to pick a toy out of the cupboard to keep.”

There were other moments of kindness too, including when Santa visited Leah first to give her a Christmas present, even though she couldn’t stay for dinner.

“When you’re deep in trauma, you need somewhere you can go to, shut the door behind you and sleep, so you can face the following day,” James said.

“Had it not been for the House, it would have been very hard for us to function.”