THE MOTHER OF nine-year-old cancer patient Lucy O’Connor has announced her little girl has now been awarded a medical card.
Lucy was diagnosed with B-cell Lymphoma in September last year and was refused a medical card on the grounds that her parents were over the means limit. At the time, her mother said they had only requested a discretionary medical card to cover expenses such as a wig – which can costs hundreds of euro – medication and GP visits for her child.
Angela O’Connor later gave up her job to care for her daughter and appealed the HSE’s refusal.
Announcing the good news yesterday, she thanked everyone who had supported her campaign.
“We hope no family, facing a diagnosis of cancer for their child, have to face the path of having little choice but to go public, at one of the most difficult times of their life,” she said.
“We take comfort that as a result of us going public with Lucy’s case, no child or adult will have to pay for a wig during treatment, this was due to us highlighting Lucy’s case in the media.”
Thank you for supporting such a brave beautiful girl, who continues to fight Cancer today, she has a long road ahead, a battle no parent would choose for their child.
Lucy’s story gained a lot of traction, with Junior Health Minister Kathleen Lynch saying she was aware of cases like the nine-year-old girl’s. However she said reviews of the medical card system had both said the process should not move into a “condition-specific model”.
The HSE has said significant steps have been taken to improve the entire medical card system.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say