This article is from page 21 of the 2008-12-02 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
LITTLE David Falconer from En- nis and Katy Judge, who is the apple of her Crusheen grandmother’s eye, were among eight children honoured at the weekend for their unbelievable LoL tb ee FeXoR
The inspirational youngsters were given Children of Courage awards by the Share a Dream Foundation.
Three-year-old David suffers from the extremely rare skin condition, Ichthyosis, which causes him to shed excessive amounts of skin.
His entire body has to be creamed every four hours and bathed for an hour every day. Yet those who know David says he “warms the heart of everyone he meets”.
Four-year-old Katy, who is a regu- lar visitor to her gran, Catherine
Brigdale in Crusheen, developed a cancerous tumour on her kidney last year.
Her kidney had to be removed and then she began a six-month course of chemotherapy, which was harrowing, Catherine explained.
“During it she lost all of her hair,
and her appetite and was a very regu- lar patient at Clonmel Hospital. One of the saddest memories I have of her is when she had to have a feed- ing tube inserted through her nose. I had often seen people with them but presumed they were inserted while asleep. Unfortunately not, as the patient needs to swallow during the procedure. She was literally speech- less with shock after it was done. Thankfully the chemo worked and Katy started school this September and is doing very well.”
Now the plucky youngsters are off to Disneyworld Paris with their families for a well-deserved family holiday.