Daniel is 4 years old..he is the most bubbliest,friendliest little boy you will ever meet..he is crazy into lorries and cars and loves to go to all the lorry shows with his daddy..he has such a lovely wee personality and is always smiling..

From daniel was around six months old i noticed a slight turn in daniels right eye..i took him to my local gp who referred us to an eye specialist in dundalk..we eventalually got an appointment and the eye specialist examined daniels eyes and said they where perfected and he would be examined again at school age..every so often when daniel was really tired his right eye would turn slightly..as he was suppose to start pre school last year we decided to take him for an eyetest in specsavers incase he might need a pair of glasses..from his eye test they detected something behind the right eye and we where sent urgently to temple street that day by Bernice in Specsavers..

On Wednesday the 17th of August 2016 daniel was diagnosed with retinabalastoma by prof okeffe in temple street..as you can imagine our world fell apart..

He had four tumours in the right eye and one in the left eye..prof okeffe spoke to us about contacting Switzerland and Toronto with the images of daniels eyes to see what they would advise to do..daniel was kept in hospital that night for an mri the next day to see if it was just confined behind the eyes..thank god it was and prof okeffe explained to us that Switzerland and Toronto came back with the same thing of four course of chemotherapy..

On the 23rd of August we went to crumlin childrens hospital to speak with Dr michael capra who explained the treatment they where going to give daniel..on the 26th of August daniel had his hickman line /freddy inserted and had his first chemotherapy that evening..we got home the next day and each week we went to Drogheda hospital where our lovely nurse connie looked after daniels hickman line and made sure it was clean and no infections would occur..she also would do Daniel’s bloods once a week.

Daniel had his next chemotherapy in September ,October snd November ..in temple street prof okeffe would check daniels eyes before each chemotherapy session..he would do cryoteraphy and check the tumours..in October he explained that daniels tumours where not responding to the chemotherapy as well as they had hoped so it was looking like we would have to go to Switzerland for specialist treatment..in the November he explained that he was sending daniel as he wanted to give daniel every chance he could to save his eyes..

Our first trip was the start of december and we have been there seven times so far..daniel had intra arterial chemotherapy in december in the chuv hospital and was then seen by prof munir in jules gonin eye hospital ..he examined daniel and came to tell us that the activity had stopped in the tumours..i will never forget that feeling when he told us its was the best news we had heard in months..every visit after that daniel had cryoteraphy ,thermoteraphy and laser treatment..

When we started our trips to Switzerland daniel had under 50% vision on the left eye now he has over 60% with out glasses and 100% with glasses..sadly daniels optic nerve on his right eye is squashed between two tumours and a large one on the back of that so he will never regain the vision in the right eye..his tumours are still there but are kept a closr eye on between Switzerland and dublin..

We where back in Switzerland two weeks ago and they have seen something on the left eye now..we hope and pray its nothing serious..we fly back out again next week..

True our journey we have meet alot of amazing people and made friends for life..A few weeks ago we where told about the gavin gylnn foundation..we contacted john and he was more than willing to help us out..we cant thank you enough cause its such a stressful time for all of us so with your help it takes such a load off us.. uses our amazing people with a heart of gold xxxx