A campaign to raise €2M for a little girl who needs vital treatment in the US has received a bittersweet pledge of €1M.
Little Olivia (Livie) Mulhern was born last August leaving parents Keith and Karen the proudest couple in the world.
Keith is from Donegal Town and Livie’s proud grandparents and many relatives still live there.
However, their world changed forever on April 9th last when little Livie was diagnosed with the rare condition SMA type 1.
The condition affects just one of 10,000 babies and means a deterioration of Livie’s nerve cells connecting her brain and spinal cord to her body’s muscles.
And worse still is that Livie has the most serious form of the condition and is unlikely to live past her second birthday if she does not get vital treatment.
Keith and Karen, who live in Ashbourne, Co Meath, and their families launched a fundraising campaign to get vital treatment in the US in the form of the drug Zolgensma which they hope will save Livie and give her a better quality of life long-term.
In recent months they have raised more than a staggering €550,000.
But yesterday Keith and Karen received some bittersweet news from another couple whose son is also hoping to get the same treatment.
A similar fundraising campaign for little Dan Donoher managed to raise a staggering €3.3 million under the fundraising slogan Do It For Dan.
However, Dan’s parents yesterday revealed that Dan had built up anti-bodies after suffering a virus which means that the treatment will not work.
Instead, Niall and Aisling Donoher from Co Laois, have now vowed to pledge €1M to Livie in her bid to get enough money for her treatment.
Livie’s parents Keith and Karen posted a message to their supporters on their Go Fund Me page to thank the Donoher family for their amazing gesture.
They wrote “You may have heard of the fundraising success of Do It For Dan, the campaign for little Dan Donoher to get Zolgensma, just like Livie. After reaching their target in a matter of weeks, the family have learned that Dan is no longer a candidate to receive the treatment; their announcement was made this evening. Our hearts go out to everyone close to little Dan.
“The Donoher family and fundraising team have made an incredible gesture and pledged €1,000,000 toward the cost of Livie’s treatment. We still have a long road ahead to raise the rest of the funds, but when we do, we will finally be able to pay for Zolgensma, giving our gorgeous little Livie the greatest chance at life. We cannot thank the Donohers and the team behind Do It For Dan enough for this, it restores our hope that we may actually get there.
“Now more than ever, your support and help is needed to get to €2,000,000. Please continue to share Livie’s story on social media and wherever you can. We are praying that we can do this for Livie for her 1st Birthday at the end of August.”
Please follow the link and donate what you can to help Little Livie https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-better-life-for-livie?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_lico+share-sheet
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