From bandages to the Brandywell

The parents of a young Derry boy who underwent major brain surgery two years ago have spoken of their joy as they watched him play in his first ever Foyle Cup.

Young Caleb Toland (7) scored a goal for Maiden City Colts as his emotional mum and dad, Ritchie and Aine, cheered on from the sidelines.

“He scored in the quarter-final match against Tristar,” said Ritchie, “and my eyes just started to fill up.

“I was thinking back to how Caleb was after his surgery, with his head covered in bandages, and us wondering would he ever play football again, so to be standing there watching him scoring a goal in the Foyle Cup – it was an unbelievable moment.”
Caleb, who lives in Rossnagalliagh with his parents and little sister Grace, was just five years old when he went through a gruelling operation in Belfast's Royal Victoria in April 2021.

He was a baby when he was diagnosed with Chiari Malformation, a neurological condition where the lower part of the brain pushes down onto the spinal cord.

“From the minute Caleb started talking,” said Aine, “he was always telling us he had a really sore head.

“Eventually he was given an MRI to test for a brain tumour and it was then they discovered the Chiari Malformation. They said his lower brain was dropping down by five millimetres but at that stage, they were hopeful the situation would rectify itself as he got taller.

“They said they would do another MRI down the line to check, but then Covid kicked in and his scans were put off. I was getting really worried because I just had a gut instinct that something was wrong, so we arranged to see a neurologist privately, who wrote to the NHS consultants telling them she felt Caleb needed to be scanned as soon as possible.

“So he went back to be scanned and it turned out the brain had now dropped by 14mm. As a result, a cyst had formed because his spinal fluid was not circulating properly. He needed surgery to push his brain up and widen the area so the fluid could move more freely.”

It was, says Aine, a harrowing experience as they waited in the hospital ward for their son to come through his surgery.

“After about eight-and-a-half hours, the surgeon appeared, still in his scrubs, to talk to us, and I remember very clearly turning round to Ritchie and saying, 'something went wrong'. I was terrified.

“But he had come up to say the cyst was bigger than they'd expected and so the operation had been slightly more complicated. I just felt unbelievable relief.”

It was a long road to recovery for the Greenhaw Primary School pupil, who had to wait six months before being given the all-clear to play his beloved football again.

Said Ritchie: “From he could walk, Caleb has always been football-mad. He was with Oxford before he had his surgery, but he was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome a few years ago and so we switched him to Maiden City as the coaches (Decky McKeever and Ryan 'Enda' Brown) are mates of mine and they know the craic with Caleb.

“He had an absolute ball playing in the Foyle Cup, and he really deserves it after everything he has been through. He is such a wee trooper and just gets on with things, so to see him scoring that goal was such a buzz.”

And there was cause for further celebration yesterday when Ritchie and Aine were given some good news.

Chiari Malformation is a lifelong condition and Caleb's doctors recently warned he might need another major operation to get a shunt put in that would drain his spinal fluid.

“We were at the Royal yesterday,” said Ritchie, “and they told us he doesn't need surgery at the minute and that he has the all-clear to play football for at least another year.

“It was on my mind all of last week when he was playing, that this might not just have been his first Foyle Cup but also his last, so I am absolutely over the moon for him.

"Hopefully this time next year he will be scoring another goal at the Foyle Cup, and me, his mammy and his wee sister Grace will be there cheering him on.”