Family fun day to raise funds for Erika (4)

A family fun day in Mullingar this Sunday is taking place for a serious cause: to raise funds to get a local child to Germany for the treatment her family hopes will kill her cancer.

Just four years old, Erika Martin has already spent more time in hospital and undergone more operations than most people will endure in a lifetime.

As if battling hydrocephalus wasn’t enough, on Christmas Eve the little tot was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer – and that same day she suffered kidney failure.

It has completely turned the world upside down for Erika’s parents Louise Kelly and Joe Martin of Oakcrest, and their older daughter Sasha (7).

The family was accustomed to the complications that Erika’s hydrocephalus meant – but at the end of November, while on a family holiday to Lanzarote, the little girl became unwell and from then until December there was a constant round of treatment and investigation before discovery of the tumour and then her kidney failure.

On St Stephen’s Day Erika went on dialysis and they gave her the first round of chemotherapy – and she was asleep for five days. Then followed a month in intensive care and since then ongoing treatment and occasional hospital stays.

Now, however, Erika needs to get to Germany, and all going well, she will be making that trip in September.