It’s Make-A-Wish week at Newstalk!
All week, the station has been fundraising for the charity that helps the dreams come true of children who have experienced serious illness.
One such child is Cian Norris, who was granted his wish to meet Shane Lowry.
Cian’s father Gavin told The Hard Shoulder that his son had a normal childhood until he was found to have a rare heart failure called restrictive cardiopathy.
“A couple of months before his fourth birthday we just brought him to hospital, what we thought was a vomiting bug and a bit of a temperature quickly escalated into a problem with his liver, which then snowballed into, no, it’s actually his heart,” he said.
“We had about two or three weeks then of fairly invasive testing under general anaesthetic, that whole stuff, and the diagnosis was very rare heart failure called restrictive cardiopathy.
“We were told the only chance of survival for Cian would be a transplant in the next year or two and that’s all he had.”
Shane Lowry (L) and Cian Norris (R). Image via Make-A-Wish.Three years later, during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, Cian received a heart transplant.
However, that wasn’t the end of his journey, as his body struggled to accept the donor heart.
Cian suffered a rare side effect known as post-transplant lymphoma, which is a type of cancer that can develop after a transplant.
“They hadn’t seen it in the cardiac kids before, so Cian was kind of a first, that’s why no one expected it,” he said.
“There’s a million and more complications for a heart transplant, it’s not a cure as such, so that brought us on a journey then to St John’s ward.
“So, as it was so well progressed, the cancer, it was a really tough time, like Cian was in an awful lot of pain – couldn't eat; the child was seven years of age and I think at the lowest he got down to about 16 kilogrammes, there was just skin and bones.”
View this post on Instagram
After a while, the chemotherapy eventually started working and Cian’s life began to return to some semblance of normality.
Mr Norris said Make-A-Wish came onto his radar after he got chatting to a tow-truck driver following a car breakdown.
Cian, who is a big golf fan, said his wish was to meet professional golfer Shane Lowry.
“This charity is so, so important for kids like Cian who haven’t had a proper childhood,” Mr Norris said.
“Usually, you’re anticipating a surgery or something terrible [and then] you have this magical day.
“Shane Lowry picked up [Cian’s] bag to walk him over, he said ‘I’ll be your caddy today Cian’, and he’s walking over to the putting green and Cian’s walking along with Shane and the TV cameras are off.
“I’m just standing there looking at my son, walking over with the crowd, watching him putt – it's just fantastic.”
Mr Norris said the day had a lasting impact and gave Cian a huge confidence boost.
Cian said he “loved” the experience.
Main image: Cian Norris (L) with Shane Lowry (R). Image via Make-A-Wish.
