Extension to house for Bella would make ‘huge difference’
By Aimee Walsh
A FUNDRAISER has been started to raise funds for a three-year-old girl who has cerebral palsy to build an extension on her house to give her a better quality of life.
Bella Brogan is a happy little three-year-old girl who is ‘always smiling’ according to her mam Pamela.
Bella with her parents Pamela and Keith Core
Bella was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at birth when Pamela was rushed to hospital following complications in her pregnancy which left Bella without oxygen for ten minutes, resulting in damage to her brain.
“She doesn’t talk, she doesn’t walk or eat anything, and she gets fed through her bowel because she can’t tolerate anything into her stomach. She has another drainage bag in her stomach to empty it because it doesn’t empty itself properly. She has another line, it’s called a port when she is in hospital she gets the needle in [the port] to give her all her medication,” Pamela tells The Echo.
Pamela also has two older children that have cystic fibrosis and says that between medication and equipment for the three children her house is “overcrowded”.
“You just can’t move in the house. I have a hospital bed in my room at the moment and you can’t even get into my room.
“I get Jack and Jill nurses for night-time but I have nowhere to put the nurses for night-time because her [Bella’s] bed is in my room so I would have to put them in the sitting room but I can’t get her bed out of my room without taking it all apart so I am not even using the Jack and Jill nurses because I have nowhere to put them.”
Three-year-old Bella
Pamela’s friend started a GoFundMe page with a target of €120,000 to build an extension onto their current house in Clondalkin for Bella’s needs which Pamela says would make a “huge difference”.
“The extension is for the house, for everything to be downstairs for her like a wet room and all the equipment – it would make a huge difference. I just want to give her the best quality of life.
“I have a three-bedroom house but because I have three sick kids there is medication and boxes, feeding pumps, Bella has a stander that she stands in too.
“I would be able to put all her equipment [in the extension] so it is not too overcrowded – I have drainage bags, feeding tubes and machines. In the kitchen I have three presses full of medication and it is hard.
“It would be brilliant because I would be able to get nurses to come in and do the hours in the extension with her because she doesn’t sleep. She goes to bed at 9pm and she wakes at 1am and stays awake until the next morning.
To donate to Bella’s fund please go to GoFundMe.
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