By David Hennessy
Jameson’s Pub, Mollison Way hosted a fundraiser that raised £5,055 for 6 year old Sarah Connery on Saturday 10 June.
Sarah’s family live in Kenton and are originally from Belgooly, Co. Cork and Kilmallock, Co. Limerick.
Sarah has been diagnosed with a rare genetic cancerous disease called Wagner’s Syndrome which affects her eyes.
Due to Sarah’s condition the family home needs to be upgraded to make it safe for Sarah with extra lighting and shelter in the back garden as Sarah’s eyes cannot take direct sunlight. Read more here.
The fundraiser at Jameson’s, as well as a gofundme page, aimed to raise some of the £20,000 for this work.
With £5,055 raised on the night, the family are well on their way on their target.
Saturday’s event included auctions and raffles as well as entertainment from Slim Attraction.
Prizes for auction and raffle include donations from big names like Nathan Carter, the cast of the Young Offenders and Cork GAA as well as club level tickets for both Arsenal and Chelsea.
Kieran McGuire and Kevin Downes went the extra mile for charity with Kieran having his chest waxed and Kevin getting his mullet cut off for a good cause.
Sarah’s mother Sarah Connery told The Irish World: “We’re absolutely over the moon, we couldn’t believe it to be honest.
“We’re going to go up there again in a couple of weeks and just get everybody to meet Sarah and just say a massive thank you to everybody who gave their time and supported us on Saturday.”
Sarah’s father Patrick added: “It was a great night, thoroughly enjoyed it.
“It was very much community coming together.”
Sarah continued: “We said a massive thank you to Kevin and Kieran, the lad who was waxed and the lad who had the hair cut.
“They were amazing, to do that was great.
“There was a good crowd, it was good to see parents from the school there and getting support from everyone, the whole community.”
The success of the fundraiser means the family can now look ahead.
Sarah says: “We can start making plans, maybe getting some quotes and seeing what it’s going to cost us to get what we need done.
“We can look to the future and get the work started.
“We are going to continue (fundraising). There’s a couple of other little events in the pipeline.
“We’ll keep the gofundme page open as long as we can.”
Sarah had an operation hoping to improve her sight but it was not as successful as hoped.
With a disease this rare, nothing is certain.
“We don’t know what the future holds for Sarah. We don’t know. We may have to pay for medical treatment in the future. We just don’t know.
“There’s not enough research on the condition because it’s so rare so it’s all new to us.
“We just go to the hospital appointments and see what they have to say or what other options they come up with.
“She had the operation done last month but it didn’t go so well.
“They have reattached her retina but we went back to the hospital three weeks ago and it had started to detach again so we have got to go back the end of this month.”
You can also give by clicking here.
