Lets Get Sights For Ellie – Help an 11 year old facing blindness see the world

Lets Get Sights for Ellie – Ellie only has sight in one eye, and tumours in her brain and optic nerve are causing her to lose sight in her eye with remaining sight.

Lets Get Sights For Ellie – Help an 11 year old facing blindness see the world 

By I Love Limerick Correspondent Ann Mc Donald

Funds raised will go towards giving Ellie the opportunity to see as many sights in the world and experience as much as she can before she loses her sight.

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Tricia McCarthy from Effin, Limerick, has set up a GoFundMe fundraiser called ‘Lets get Sights for Ellie’ for 11-year-old Ellie Cusack.

Ellie has suffered for many years of failing eyesight and has only ever had sight in one eye.

She has recently been diagnosed with multiple meningioma tumours in her brain. One of these tumours is on the optic nerve on her eye with remaining sight.

The tumour is inoperable and will make her go blind. At the moment, it is unknown how much longer Ellie will have her sight for.

Unfortunately, Ellie and her family have been told that some of these tumours are cancerous.

Tricia is now trying to raise funds to take Ellie to see as many sights in the world and experience as many things as she can while she has her sight remaining.

Ellie’s mother, Caroline, said, “Family friends and best of all complete strangers have sent Ellie such generous donations. The kind offers from local businesses and donations from them too has just overwhelmed me beyond belief. It’s very understandable that people are not able to donate and can only share instead and that to me is just as wonderful.

To make Ellie’s story heard is so important as maybe one day research can help a family like ours, Ellie’s condition is so rare that her huge team of neurologists, neurosurgeons, ophthalmologists, and oncologists haven’t even dealt with such a case. Thankfully, Ellie’s recent surgery sees an important piece of optic nerve tissue being sent to America for a second opinion on treatment as currently there is no cure for what Ellie has.”

A recent update on Ellie’s GoFundMe by Caroline says that a biopsy on Ellie’s blind eye is showing that the tumour on her optic nerve is benign.

“No biopsies have been done on the multiple other brain tumours, at the moment they tell us they’re cancerous. But we live in hope that they will in time be able to tell us otherwise. No biopsy is planned for these tumours yet, as the main focus is to deal with her sight loss and the tumours are small enough yet not to cause too much trouble,” Caroline said.

Ellie will be moved to Crumlin Hospital in the hope that radiation will slow the growth of the tumour. While the treatment is risky, Caroline was told that doing nothing will cause greater risk.

With radiation, Ellie will still lose her sight, but the loss may be slowed down.

Any donation to Ellie’s GoFundMe is greatly appreciated, and people are encouraged to share the fundraiser.

To donate to the GoFundMe go HERE

For more stories about Community go HERE