Little kicker Caolan Melaugh has started his football career – and is loving it!
The two-year-old from Killygordon has been battling with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma, a rare and aggressive childhood cancer, since he was just 10 weeks old.
Caolan is still getting intensive treatment, after he suffered a relapse while in America for a clinical trial in September.
His father, Gerard, is a talented sportsman who recently won the Donegal League Division 1 title with Cappry Rovers and who plays Gaelic football for Red Hughs.
Toddler Caolan has got stuck in hwile attending the ‘Little Kickers’ programme organised by Damian Devaney at the Henderson Hall in Stranorlar.
“It’s great for him to mingle with other kids,” Gerard said.
Gerard Melaugh with his sons Caolan and Eoghan after Cappry Rovers won the First Division title
“The longer it went on, the more he mixed. Damian is doing a great job with his wee group.
“Caolan needs this to bring him out of his shell a bit with the other kids.
“He loved it and he told Damian that he’ll be back anyway. He wouldn’t take off his Barca kit when we got the Little Kickers kit at first on Saturday – but we eventually got him into it.”
Little Kickers is aimed at kids between the ages of two and five.
Caolan was enrolled on a preventative trial at under the care of Dr Giselle Sholler at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan last summer.
The trial started in July, but in September Caolan took a seizure while in Michigan and tests showed that he had relapsed with the cancer now affecting his brain.
In America, he had two lifesaving brain surgeries.
He had already underwent a year-and-a-half of treatment, which included chemotherapy, surgery, stem cell transplant, radiotherapy and six months of immunotherapy.
The Melaughs are facing a bill of over €200,000 for treatment in the US and Republic of Ireland captain Séamus Coleman recently donated €6,000 to the Caolan Melaugh Fund.
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