Save a smile for children in hospital

An eight year old girl from Ballincollig has helped to launched a campaign called Save a Smile to remind people that some children won’t wake up at home on Christmas Day, they’ll wake up in hospital.

The Children’s Health Foundation campaign is now under way with those behind it saying that with the support and generosity of supporters across the country, children in hospital won’t miss out on the magic of Christmas.

Rachel from Ballincollig was born in March 2017, and has faced a critical medical condition since birth when doctors discovered she was born with a serious bowel issue. At just two days old, she was urgently transferred from Cork University Maternity Hospital to Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) at Crumlin for immediate evaluation and treatment. One week later, Rachel underwent an emergency colostomy stoma surgery to allow her bowel to work properly.

“Our world completely changed,” said Niamh, Rachel’s mum.

When Niamh and Philip, Rachel’s dad, should have been celebrating the arrival of their newborn, they were instead rushing back to an empty house to pack a hospital bag, following an ambulance to Crumlin, and facing the devastating reality that their baby needed emergency surgery. The following year would see Rachel undergo multiple procedures at six months old, a stoma reversal at nine months old, and two prolapse repair surgeries.

Then, at four years old, Rachel needed a permanent colostomy stoma, with an emergency repair needed in September 2021. But Rachel’s stoma gave her a new lease on life. She returned to school, started gymnastics and dancing again, and became more energetic than ever.

Looking back, the journey to this point was incredibly tough. At the start, Niamh recalled thinking: “Our life is over. We will never be able to go anywhere again.” But one of the nurses in Crumlin reassured her: “One day, you’ll be changing Rachel’s bag on a park bench and won’t think twice about it.”

Niamh said: “At the time, I thought she was crazy, but she was right.”

Conditions like Rachel’s are often invisible disabilities. “Without her bag, you wouldn’t know she had one,” explained Niamh. “This can make things difficult, like when we need to use disability restrooms to change her bag. People don’t always understand why we’re there.”

Rachel is now thriving and is the “happiest and healthiest she has ever been. She is also very independent, now doing her own stoma bag,” said Niamh.