Cian McDonnell, the four-year-old boy at the centre of the 'Hope for Cian' campaign, has passed away. His family had been attempting to save his life with a major fundraising drive.
Cian, from Carlanstown in Co Meath, suffered from a rare, incurable illness called Dyskeratosis Congenita and his family had been attempting to raise funds to get him to Boston for a potentially life-saving lung transplant.
However, this evening the Hope for Cian Facebook page posted a message saying:
“Our beautiful boy is with the angels now. He fought so hard. Heaven is so lucky to have him. We are broken hearted.
“His Mammy, Daddy and big sister Chloe held his hand until the end. Fly high our beautiful boy where there will be no more suffering or pain.”
A message on the page had yesterday announced that Cian was in “critical condition in ICU.”
Dyskeratosis Congenita affects roughly one in a million people. Cian went blind before his first birthday, and soon after that doctors discovered his bone marrow was failing. A full diagnosis proved difficult to establish as the condition is so rare doctors were unsure what was affecting Cian.
In 2013 he had a successful bone marrow transplant but in January of this year his condition deteriorated and he was admitted to hospital again, where he was diagnosed with microscopic pulmonary acms. Eventually Cian’s family were informed by doctors that he had only months to live due to pinholes in his lungs.
The McDonnell family refused to give up hope and set about raising the funds to bring Cian to Boston Children’s Hospital for a lung transplant. The campaign attracted major support from the public, with a series of fundraisers organised across Ireland.
