Lavey man undergoing life-saving surgery in US following major community effort
A Lavey man is today (Thursday) undergoing life-saving surgery in a Florida hospital after his community rallied around him, his wife and his newborn twins in their time of need.
The organising committee of Save Declan’s Life, a fundraising venture to aid Declan Ferguson (47) in seeking medical treatment in the US, has raised €250,117 to date, following a last push at the weekend.
“There was a real sense of urgency out there, people really responded to the appeal. That figure is between the bank account and the GoFundMe account. The website was the global contribution, but there was a phenomenal response locally,” said Marie Glennon the secretary of the fundraising committee.
The bank account, which includes the GoFundMe and offline donations, topped €164,000. The rest of the money came from the community response including functions, raffles and bucket collections. The Lavey community rowed in behind the efforts to raise money to fund Declan’s medical treatment.
Last March, Declan was told he had terminal abdominal cancer. Treatment in Ireland was limited as the diagnosis determined the cancer was ‘stage 4’. A cancer is ‘stage 4’ when it has spread away from the origin into other organs of the body.
Declan sought a second opinion, which brought him to Florida. In the US he has undergone aggressive chemotherapy, which he says has shrunk the tumour enough to allow him undergo surgery to remove it.
Declan will go in for surgery tomorrow (Thursday) in a Florida hospital. His friends established the GoFundMe campaign initially to raise $190,000 to finance the treatment. The final cost of treatment is yet to be confirmed: “We still don’t know what the surgery will cost, because they can only do estimates at the moment, but a figure that has been quoted is $260,000,” Marie said.
The community have organised another spiritual support for Declan, who is father to 10-month-old twins. “We are holding a vigil for Declan from noon to midnight at Lavey church on the day of the surgery,” the secretary of the fundraising committee said.
Cllr Fergal Curtain who has been involved in the committee to raise the funds, thanked everyone who helped in the efforts to pay for Declan’s medical treatment, from donors to collectors to organisers.