FOOTBALLERS FROM Cork City FC and hurlers from the city and county have joined a campaign to raise funds for a 31-year-old mother of one who has been left paralysed since she suffered two strokes during brain surgery earlier this year.
Catherine O'Leary from Ballincollig in Cork has been diagnosed with a rare disorder called "locked-in syndrome", meaning she is fully alert but unable to move or speak.
Ms O'Leary is to travel to Britain in the near future for treatment at a specialist rehabilitation hospital in Putney. The HSE is expected to pick up the costs for her treatment, but friends and family have been fundraising for future treatment down the line, possibly in clinics in the US.
Ms O'Leary's close friend Melanie O'Mahony said yesterday that she was amazed by the support she has received since she embarked on the fundraising drive.
"People are unbelievable. I am shocked by the amount of stuff going on for Catherine. People are calling to say they are willing to help out in any way. All of this money is going into an account for Catherine's treatment."
Ms O'Leary has spent the last five months in a high-dependency unit at Cork University Hospital.
Her health problems began over three years ago when she couldn't stop hiccupping, had vomiting spells and headaches.
What was causing it was a rare tumour the size of a golf ball on her lower brain stem. In February, a scan uncovered a haemoblastoma tumour. She was scheduled for surgery just two weeks later.
Ms O'Leary managed the Subway sandwich cafe in Ballincollig before her tumour operation in February. She and her partner Nigel have an eight-year-old son, Brandon.
Locked-in syndrome is a condition in which a patient is aware and awake, but cannot move or communicate due to complete paralysis of nearly all voluntary muscles in the body.