Over €200,000 has been raised for former Cork footballer Kieran O'Connor, after a GoFundMe page was launched to support him over the weekend.
The Aghada man is battling cancer for the third time - Ewing's Scaroma to be precise, a rare form of bone cancer.
The 39 year old has had his lower leg amputated in January,
The Friends of Kieran group launched a GoFundMe page over the weekend with the goal of raising €250,000, to "help Kieran with all aspects on further treatment and care, as well as potential prosthetic costs following his lower leg amputation and to help support [his wife] Sinead and their 3 young children."
And that goal looks like it will be reached - at the time of writing €207,971 had been raised.
In a powerful piece in the Irish Examiner, former Cork captain Graham Canty said " As of last week, Kieran is now battling cancer for the third time in 18 months. He is in big trouble. He has all of the hard work done. He has had the honesty to face it all head on. This has still not been enough to allow him to deliver for his own group, his family.
"If I put myself in Kieran’s position or my own wife in Sinéad’s position, this would be the most frightened we could ever imagine ourselves to be. The time has come when he needs our help and I don’t think the group is enough this time. We need more.
A statement on the GoFundMe page read "over the last few months, Kieran was suffering from persistent pains in his leg and the wound was not healing fully. In January 2019 he had to endure another serious operation & his lower leg was amputated.
While trying to recover from the amputation, he started experiencing bad back pains, and last week we were all devastated to find out that his cancer had spread. Kieran is a fighter, he is back on chemo treatment this week battling Ewing’s Sarcoma for the THIRD time in 18 months."
If you would like to contribute, you can find the GoFundMe page HERE
Meanwhile, a 5k walk from Aghada GAA Club will take place on Monday March 18th to raise further funds.
Join us in supporting Kieran and his family as together we walk this challenging path in steadfast solidarity #friendsofkieran @AghadaGAA pic.twitter.com/eO74IkSwsA
— friendsofkieran (@friendsofkieran) March 10, 2019
