Kinnitty couple seek support for their 'Room to Move’ campaign

Love for their sons has pushed Kinnitty couple Michael and Catherine Donogher to kick off a fundraising campaign to cover the costs of adapting their home.

Michael Donogher currently has to carry his sons Thomas (12) and Sean (11) - who have both been diagnosed with muscle-wasting disease muscular dystrophy and use wheelchairs to get around - to and from their upstairs bedrooms every morning and night.

The couple was given planning permission for plans that would allow both Thomas and Sean their own downstairs bedrooms, an accessible bathroom and living area and a carport.

Having failed to get a mortgage to cover the work however, Michael and Catherine are hoping support for their “Room to Move” initiative will allow them to see their plans to fruition.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent Catherine said their “world fell apart” when Thomas was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy six years ago.

“We left hospital with what it was called written down,” she remembers. “The first thing we did when we came home was look it up, which was the worst thing I could have done because it scared me.”

Further tests on Thomas’s younger brothers Sean and Luke (10) showed that Sean also had the condition, while Luke’s tests came back clear.

Since then both Thomas and Sean have become full-time wheelchair users. Thomas got his first manual wheelchair in January 2011 aged ten, while Sean got his first chair in June of the same year. Both Thomas and Sean got power wheelchairs at the end of August in the same year, and it’s those chairs they now use constantly.

Both boys have adapted, continuing to get on well in school and embracing their new sport power football. The Donogher family has also adapted, but adapting is not something that’s come so easily to the Donogher home however.

“We’re living in a storey and a half,” Catherine said. “The boys’ bedrooms are upstairs. Michael brings them up at night and down in the morning.
“It’s our whole house,” she continued. “It’s not overly big. We need more space, and we need to change the bathroom.”

The problem is only going to get worse as Thomas - who currently shares a room with his brother Sean - becomes a teenager and wants his own space.
As they grow both Thomas and Sean are also becoming more difficult for their father Michael to carry up and down stairs.

Furthermore, Catherine says having the boys’ power football playing friends over to visit is at the moment just not an option in their home because of space and accessibility issues.

Taking account of their new circumstances, Catherine and Michael drew up plans to adapt their house and got planning permission for the work at the end of 2012.

Failing to get mortgage approval since, Tesco worker Catherine said they now have to look to other ways to fund the work.

“Our fundraising aim is €120,000,” Catherine said this week, adding that at that much of the work will be done by Michael, who used to work in the building trade. The effort, which is dubbed “Room to Move” will focus on a prize draw, which will be launched on June 1.

That draw, which will take place on August 5 next, will include a top prize of €2,000 and a second prize of €1,000. A meeting will be held in Kinnitty Hall next Tuesday night at 8.30pm to finalise plans and get the fundraising work started.

“We can’t carry on as we are,” Catherine said, adding that getting the work carried out to their home would “mean everything”.

You can find out more about “Room to Move” on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/roomtomove.kinnitty.