![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/cork-mother-to-walk-in-the-steps-of-medics-who-spotted-rare-conditions-in-her-twins.jpeg\")
Twins Tadhg, left, and Cathal Fitzgibbon battled twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a rare condition in which one baby receives more nutrients from the placenta than the other (Ciara Bowe\/PA)<\/p>\nA grateful Cork mother is set to walk a \u201ctrek of thanks\u201d in the footsteps of medics who caught a rare condition threatening the lives of her twin boys.<\/p>\n
Ciara Bowe, 44, was just 16 weeks into her pregnancy in 2023 when she was told the identical siblings were both at grave risk from twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS).<\/p>\n
The rare condition, in which one baby receives more nutrients from the placenta than the other, put both little Tadhg and Cathal in serious danger \u2013 and could have been fatal if not identified or treated.<\/p>\n
Twins Tadhg, left, and Cathal Fitzgibbon battled twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS), a rare condition in which one baby receives more nutrients from the placenta than the other (Ciara Bowe\/PA)<\/p>\n
The morning after pioneering surgery aimed at correcting the blood and nutrient supply the tots were receiving, Bowe had to undergo a scan.<\/p>\n
The\u00a0primary school principal from Ballincollig described the \u201clongest walk of my life down the corridor for that scan to see if there was one heartbeat, two heartbeats\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut there were two and they could even see signs of improvement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth boys are now thriving, it\u2019s amazing that something so challenging in utero was so life-threatening, and had the potential to have such an impact, but we were just blessed it was caught at the early stage.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the life-saving surgery was performed at Dublin\u2019s Rotunda Hospital, it was the ante-natal team at Cork University Maternity Hospital (CUMH) which initially spotted the danger, giving the boys the best chance of survival.<\/p>\n
Now Ms Bowe has embraced a CUH Charity fundraiser for May called Walk In Their Shoes, which asks the public to match the daily steps of healthcare workers to raise critical funds for both the maternity and general hospital.<\/p>\n
She has chosen to match the 13,000-steps-a-day of Zac Dwyer, who works with the charity, and is asking the public to support her month-long fundraiser.<\/p>\n
Bowe has two other powerful reasons for signing up, following the separate care her sister and father received at CUH \u2013 but her fundraising gesture primarily stems from the care her twins received.<\/p>\n
She vividly remembers one of her conversations with a consultant \u2013 the awful odds of survival and that in many TTTS cases, leaving hospital with one baby, rather than two, is considered the best outcome.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cIf it is not spotted, or you go without treatment, the odds are up to 90% that neither baby will make it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we went to the Rotunda, we were given a 25% chance that the surgery would save both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Incredibly, both babies were born perfectly healthy at 34 weeks, Tadhg at 6lb 6oz and the \u201clittle warrior baby\u201d Cathal at 5lb 9.5oz.<\/p>\n
Sharing the household with their dad Thomas Fitzgibbon and big brother Seamus, four, they turned two last month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re all chat, they have that beautiful madness of discovering the world, walking and running and also the tears and tantrums,\u201d Bowe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn terms of development, they are exactly where they should be, they\u2019re thriving. They are our gifts, our blessings.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is Bowe\u2019s second major fundraising effort for CUH and CUMH.<\/p>\n
In 2024, she raised \u20ac36,000 walking 253km around the streets and parks of Cork \u2013 the equivalent distance from Leeside to the Rotunda.<\/p>\n
*You can support her Walk in Their Shoes fundraiser, supported by Skechers, at\u00a0www.idonate.ie\/fundraiser\/11646956\u00a0or sign up at:\u00a0www.cuhcharity.ie\/walkintheirshoe2026\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A grateful Cork mother is set to walk a \u201ctrek of thanks\u201d in the footsteps of medics who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":406601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-406600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/406601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}