‘Run for Roxanne’ raised €3,000 in Carlow town for scoliosis surgery
Roxanne Kelly with her friends Olivia Mattimoe, Molly-Jane Healy and Molly Byrne
THE 5km fun run ‘Run for Roxanne’ that passed through Carlow town on Sunday 15 March raised €3,000 towards Roxanne Kelly’s scoliosis surgery this summer.
On 18 February, reported how, despite Roxanne’s scoliosis rapidly progressing from 40 to 80 degrees in the past six months, she has not been placed on an Irish waiting list for scoliosis surgery due to the complexity of her case and the large backlog of cases. If her scoliosis progresses to 130 degrees, she will be unable to eat or breathe properly.
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“I’m only looking at her back there now and it’s starting to really kind of bend over, which is kind of frightening really,” Roxanne’s mother Maírin Nolan said.
“It’s worse than it was a month ago. We don’t have any recent x-rays of her back, as they didn’t do an x-ray in Crumlin Children’s Hospital last time she went, probably because they don’t want to acknowledge that it’s getting worse.”
Roxanne’s surgery costs €60,000 and will take place in the USA. The run, which was organised by Jenny Nolan, has helped the family get closer to their fundraising goal.
“I think there’s around eight or nine grand left. We’ve booked the surgery now,” Maírin said.
Maírin emphasised how lucky the family feels to have received such great community support and expressed thanks to all who came out and to Tribe Art, who put on free activities for children after the run.
