Parents of critically ill Midlands toddler grateful as GoFundMe reaches €330k target

The family of a Midlands toddler has expressed their gratitude as a campaign to raise funds for a life-changing operation abroad surpassed its €330,000 target. 

Joey Conway's mother, Natalie, organised a GoFundMe fundraiser following his diagnosis of Non-cirrhotic Portal Hypertension, which reportedly has life threatening symptoms and a risk of death of 40% on a first episode of bleeding. 

A five hour surgery - called Meso Rex Shunt/Bypass - which can give two year old Joey his life back is available in Chicago in the US, and requires the family to stay anywhere between 8-12 weeks from pre-op to post-op. 

This comes at a cost of €330,000. 

Thankfully, due to the generosity of Offaly people and the wider community, the fundraiser has now reached €331,621 and is no longer accepting donations. 

In a video posted after reaching the fundraiser target, Natalie said, "This will give our little man a chance, which is all we wanted to do as parents and give him the best chance of living a full life, a full healthy life." 

She and Joey's father thanked Offaly GAA, Michael Duignan, Shane Lowry, and all who helped with the fundraiser and its momentum. 

She said, "You're all part of this journey from the start and we want you to keep with us, we want to bring you to Chicago with us and keep you all updated in the future, what the future holds for Joey when we can get the date booked. Thank you everyone, it means a lot." 

Joey's father added: "I also want to say that for this to happen we had a group of people who came together to help us, friends and family; Gillian, Aisling, Colm, Attracta, Johno, and very importantly, a man that's really helped us who we had no real affiliation to before we started this process, a man called Bryan Breen deserves a massive mention.

"This wouldn't have happened without him, and as Natalie said, we can't wait to get to Chicago in 2024. Thanks very much from the bottom of our hearts." 

Without the US surgery, Joey would have to rely on the only treatment available to him in Ireland, which involves undergoing general anaesthetic and endoscopy to band varices 3-4 times per year. 

According to Natalie, this treatment would fix some problems but it would not improve his other symptoms, such as an enlarged spleen and urine retention. 

The family were under time pressure to raise the needed funds for the US surgery as Joey - who has had two bouts of sepsis in his young life - is only a good candidate so long as he doesn't have a bleeding episode. 

When the fundraiser went live, Natalie said, "As parents we are constantly living on the edge in fear of 'Is he going to cough up blood? Or is this the nappy that will have the blood in it? We hear him coughing in bed, we check straight away to see if there is blood on the sheets. Or is he having too much fun laughing and shouting, will this make him bleed?' 

"Trying to keep him safe from infections, making decisions to go out as a family or go to play centres, going swimming, all these 'normal' experiences we have to second guess and analyse the situation." 

She said, "The best outcome of the surgery is to operate on a system that has not had any bleeding yet i.e. a system that is not under too much pressure. And we are against the clock because the sooner we get this done for Joey we immediately eliminate the threat to his life of bleeding or another septic event. 

"He won't be held back in his development and catch up where he has missed. His spleen will go back to a normal size, where his white blood cells and platelets will go back to normal levels, which his risk of serious infections will reduce and allow him to fight infection normally."