30/08/2026
Please read the below story about Fionn who we recently helped travel to Manchester for Proton treatment.
In December 2025, our twelve year son Fionn had a cold and wasn’t feeling well, so I kept him home from school. I was rubbing his back when I noticed a hard, rigid lump on his ribs, just below his right shoulder blade. I asked him to take off his T-shirt so I could compare it with the other side. There was nothing similar on the other side. I was immediately concerned, as I knew the fact that it felt so hard and rigid was worrying.
I brought Fionn to urgent care and he was put on a waiting list for an ultrasound. I decided to go privately, as I wanted to be able to put my mind at ease before Christmas, and managed to get an appointment the day before his 12th birthday.
While I was making his birthday cake and pizza, I got a phone call from the GP asking me to come in as they needed to speak to me urgently. The GP happened to be a locum who had previously worked in oncology, so he understood the significance of what was showing on the ultrasound. Based on what he could see, along with the recommendation of the consultant who had reviewed the scan, he felt that urgent further investigation was needed to rule out a sarcoma.
I didn’t even know what a sarcoma was.
Fionn had absolutely no symptoms apart from the lump. He had played a rugby match and was doing chin-ups the day before. He was playing sport up to six times a week, including matches.
We were utterly devastated.
Over the following week, Fionn underwent a multitude of scans and tests, which ultimately confirmed our worst nightmare.
It transpired that Fionn would need an extremely aggressive and intensive course of treatment if he was to have a chance of a cure. He would need 14 cycles of chemotherapy, alternating between five-day and two-day cycles; major surgery to remove three of his ribs, parts of his vertebrae and large sections of muscle and surrounding tissue; followed by 30 fractions of radiotherapy.
Fionn is an outgoing, sporty, fun-loving kid who is always up for the craic. Chemotherapy completely depleted him of that joy. However, he always managed to rally between cycles and was up for seeing friends, going for walks with his young golden retriever puppy and eating out - doing whatever he could to hold on to some sense of normality.
He had the surgery in mid-May and it was a lot more difficult than we had anticipated. It is a particularly painful surgery and, although the pain management team were amazing, it took some time to get his pain under control. The surgeons did an incredible job and managed to achieve clear margins, something which was extremely difficult given the position of the tumour so close to Fionn’s spine.
The recovery from surgery was extremely difficult and painful, and Fionn still has to deal with the implications of it on a daily basis.
A month or so before the surgery, our consultant told us that we would need to travel to Manchester for a highly specialised and precise form of radiation treatment called Proton Beam Therapy, which is not available in Ireland.
We would have to travel about a month after Fionn’s surgery. This felt incredibly overwhelming, as Fionn would still be recovering from major surgery while continuing to undergo chemotherapy. Things were already tough enough as they were.
There were so many logistical issues to think about too. Our 15-year-old daughter Maisy, our dog Mable, where we would stay, getting to and from the treatment centres, the costs involved, and the stress of travelling through airports with a child undergoing cancer treatment. Our minds were racing.
This is where the Gavin Glynn Foundation, and particularly John and Jayne Glynn, came into our lives and took an enormous burden off our shoulders.
John contacted me within a day of us finding out that we needed to travel. From that point on, John and Jayne took care of things that, at that stage, we simply didn’t have the capacity to deal with ourselves. They arranged and funded all our travel and accommodation and even provided money towards our day-to-day expenses. We gave them our passport details and that was that – it was sorted.
It is difficult to explain just how much that helped us. At a time when our minds were completely consumed by Fionn, his treatment and everything he was going through, John and Jayne removed an entire layer of worry and stress. We didn’t have to research flights, figure out accommodation or worry about how we were going to manage all the practicalities. They simply took care of it.
They also linked in with a wonderful service provided by volunteers in Aer Lingus, who arranged for us to be es**rted through Dublin Airport, making sure we didn’t have to deal with queues or difficulties at security. This made travelling so much less stressful, particularly during one of the busiest travel periods of the year in July.
But what John and Jayne did for us went far beyond simply sorting out the practicalities.
Fionn had become incredibly attached to his young dog, Mable, a golden retriever pup we had got just two weeks before all of this started. She has been a huge source of comfort, companionship and fun for him, and for all of us, throughout this incredibly difficult time. He was absolutely devastated at the thought of having to leave her behind.
I explained this to John and asked if there was any possibility that we could bring her with us. John was unbelievably accommodating and did everything he could to help make it happen. Mable got her doggy passport and came over on the ferry with my husband to Manchester.
She has kept us all entertained and has kept us out walking every day. Most importantly, she has been here with Fionn. The emotional impact of having her here with him is difficult to put into words. In the middle of hospitals, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and everything else he has had to endure, she has given him comfort, familiarity and a little piece of his normal life.
What John and Jayne have done for us has meant so much more than organising flights or accommodation. At one of the most frightening and overwhelming times in our lives, they stepped in and quietly removed problems that we simply did not have the energy or headspace to solve ourselves. They understood what we needed, often before we even knew what to ask for, and allowed us to concentrate on the one thing that actually mattered – Fionn and getting him through his treatment.
Honestly, we cannot thank John and Jayne enough for everything they have done, and continue to do, for Fionn and for our whole family.
Their support has made an extraordinarily difficult journey that little bit easier to navigate, and that has meant more to us than we can adequately put into words.
