IDE’s Journey - closes tonight at midnight

Update 13/9/2024

Olympic Gold Medalist fighter Kellie Harrington visiting an equally determined fighter Íde Lavin in Temple Street Hospital. Íde is shaking her fist triumphantly at her father Míchael and her mother Claire Kenoy. Íde has just come through her fourth operation and is doing good.

Thanks to everyone for your generous donations, we will be keeping this page live for donations and updates from Íde's Journey.

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Hello our names are Joan (Regan) and Tommy (O'Dowd) and we are fundraising for Claire (Kenoy) and Micheal Lavin.....

On the 23rd February 2024 the lives of Claire and Micheal were turned upside down when Claire had to have an emergency C-Section in Sligo General Hospital, twin girls were born that day at 28 weeks with Ide weighting 1.2kg and Frankie 760grams. The girls were then transferred to Holles Street Hospital, Dublin.

On day 2 of life Ide had a significant grade 4 bleed on her brain giving her hours to live. In the next few weeks, she battled through kidney failure, suspected sepsis and brain surgery in-between.

They then received the devastating news came that Ide had Meningitis and her life expectancy was days to weeks. They then took her home from Dublin and her twin sister was transferred to NICU Sligo where she spent 5 weeks. Also, having two boys at home under the age of 4 and a baby was extremely difficult on the family.

Fast forward 7 weeks Ide was showing an incredible will to survive despite the extreme difficulties of living with hydrocephalus. They brought Ide to Temple Street where she had some fluid drained from her brain but it took a huge tole on Ide and they thought they almost lost her so they made the difficult decision to take her back home to be with her siblings.

2 months later, Ide is now in temple street where she has undergone 3 brain surgeries in the past two weeks and will have to have one more before she can return home. This little girl desire to live is inspirational and they feel incredibly lucky to have her here with them.

Micheal has been unable to return to work (Micheal is self-employed) as Ide’s life hung in the balance everyday and was scared to miss her passing as well as helping Claire look after her twin sister (who has had feeding issues) with her two brothers.

Íde and Frankie's lives have been amazing but very difficult especially financially and the future is still uncertain. Michael is also self- employed and gets no help from the government and he has part time employees who just cover the bills.

Thank you for taking the time to read Ide's story and for considering supporting her during this challenging time. Your kindness and generosity are deeply appreciated, and we are grateful for any help you can provide! If you are not in a position to donate, we would appreciate if you could share Íde's story.

Thank you,

Joan and Tommy