![\"Aishling](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/5084913_6_articleinline_Aishling_McCormack.png\" "\\"Aishling")
Aishling McCormack, clinical nurse specialist with LauraLynn\u2019s Mallow-based community team: ‘Our role is to lighten the burden for parents, to work with them and to give them some sort of a break.’<\/p>\nIn D\u00fan Laoghaire a couple of weekends ago, mum of four Sharon Lehane and her husband, Niall, watched their youngest daughter, 14-year-old Kate, cycle along the pier.<\/p>\n
Kate has Down syndrome, is wheelchair-bound and has a life-limiting condition. That weekend, she was spending three nights in her \u201chappy place\u201d \u2014 LauraLynn in Dublin.<\/p>\n
\u201cNiall and I went for coffee and then I said \u2018we\u2019ll go to D\u00fan Laoghaire\u2019 \u2014 because I wanted to see her get up on that bike,\u201d says the Cobh-based mum. The bike in question is a wheelchair platform, accessible bike.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe walked onto the pier, wondering \u2018where is she\u2019 \u2014 and then we could see her way down at the end. She was coming up with the nurses, hands spread out like an airplane and the smile on her face \u2014 it was just electric.<\/p>\n
\n Everybody on the pier was saying hello and waving at her, and Kate was so excited. I had a lump in my throat.\n <\/p>\n
LauraLynn \u2014 Ireland\u2019s only children\u2019s hospice \u2014 came into the family\u2019s life just after covid. \u201cThey\u2019ve made an awful lot possible for us,\u201d says Sharon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aside from Kate\u2019s regular stays with LauraLynn in Dublin \u2014 \u201cFrom the second we go in, she\u2019s in the playroom, she doesn\u2019t want to see us\u201d \u2014 the family receive support from the community team based
out of Mallow, one of three such LauraLynn community teams working across the country.<\/p>\n
The community teams are multi-disciplinary and provide care and support to children and families in their own homes, in the community, or in hospital. In 2025, they provided 3,898 such visits. \u201cThey\u2019ve come out to help me with Kate\u2019s medical stuff and Kate is thrilled to see them \u2014 she addresses them all by name. They\u2019ve come with music therapy, with games \u2014 they get her to do things I can\u2019t.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven them saying, \u2018Take a break Sharon, we\u2019re here, just relax\u2019 is such a support.\u201d<\/p>\n
To say Kate has been through a lot in her 14 years is a huge understatement. At three-and-a-half months and weighing just 7.5lbs, she had open heart surgery \u2014 afterwards she experienced vocal cord paralysis, which made eating very difficult. \u201cWe tried to orally feed her but she had constant issues with aspiration and she\u2019d end up in hospital with pneumonia. She had massive problems with constipation.\u201d<\/p>\n
After undergoing tests, Kate was diagnosed with chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction, a rare disease. \u201cIt means her brain is telling her that her gut is obstructing all the time, though it isn\u2019t really,\u201d explains Sharon.<\/p>\n
Kate has battled sepsis five times \u2014 the first bout when she was six, and she experienced two instances in 2024. \u201cIt has taken a huge toll on her body,\u201d says Sharon, describing how Kate is fed through a central line in her heart.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has a jejunal tube into her bowel, a PEG tube to her stomach and an ileostomy bag. She has a lot of tubes and bags. That\u2019s her life \u2014 she knows she has them and she has nicknames for them.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe calls her central line her boob tube. The ileostomy is the smelly belly. The PEG tube is Peggy, and the jejunal is Jej. Kate\u2019s speech isn\u2019t great \u2014 you\u2019d need to know her to understand what she\u2019s saying, sometimes even I don\u2019t know. But the nicknames make it easier for her to indicate if she has a problem with the tubes or bag.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reality for Sharon and Niall \u2014 parents also to Lauren, Conor, and Rachel, all in their early 20s \u2014 is that Kate requires 24-hour care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat makes it more challenging is she has no comprehension of what all those tubes are for. She doesn\u2019t understand, the danger, the severity, if she pulled them out. For example, if the central line into her heart gets infected, it brings the infection right into her blood supply and around her body.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prior to visiting LauraLynn for the first time, Sharon expected it to be \u201csomething like a hospital\u201d \u2014 it couldn\u2019t have been more different, she says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n When they said Niall and I could go for a walk, we said, \u2018Are you sure?\u2019 We weren\u2019t used to that, we\u2019d never done it \u2014 I might go for a walk, or Niall might, but we\u2019d never do it together.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we did go for a walk. And I started feeling \u2018we\u2019re gone too long, we have to get back\u2019 \u2014 and when we did, Kate was in great form. She stayed in LauraLynn that first night. She was downstairs \u2014 we were in a room upstairs, wondering how she was going to be. It wasn\u2019t a bother to her.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was great to have the space, to be able to relax, and know Kate was being looked after. To be able to go out with Niall, or go to the cinema with the other kids \u2014 normal simple things, these are what I enjoy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aishling McCormack, clinical nurse specialist with LauraLynn\u2019s Mallow-based community team: ‘Our role is to lighten the burden for parents, to work with them and to give them some sort of a break.’<\/p>\n
Aishling McCormack is a clinical nurse specialist with LauraLynn\u2019s Mallow-based community team. The 15-member team includes seven staff nurses, as well as a music and play therapist. They cover Cork, Kerry, Limerick, Waterford, and South Tipperary \u2014 nurses do about 30 home visits weekly in the region.<\/p>\n
McCormack says children with life-limiting conditions experience many bumps along the road. \u201cWe provide specialist nursing care in the home. We could be supporting with symptom management, changes in medication, and managing any feeding tubes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe provide step-down nursing support, for example, if a child is discharged from hospital they can be quite fragile, McCormack says.<\/p>\n
\n They could be out of school or have high nursing needs. It takes them a while to get back to their baseline. This can have a huge impact on parents.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cOur role is to lighten the burden for parents, to work with them and to give them some sort of a break.\u201d<\/p>\n
McCormack explains that for children unable to manage the journey to the hospice in Dublin, the Mallow team provides hospice care in the home.<\/p>\n
LauraLynn, now in its 15th year, provides symptom-management, planned short breaks, emergency and end-of-life care, as well as family supports and bereavement care to children with life-limiting conditions and their families across Ireland.<\/p>\n
A big part of LauraLynn\u2019s work is supporting siblings of a child with a life-limiting condition \u2014 through targeted sibling camps, one-to-one play therapy sessions and other therapeutic interventions.<\/p>\n
Connecting siblings with other children in similar situations creates a strong relationship and network through which they can explore their feelings and lived experiences.<\/p>\n
In 2025, LauraLynn Children\u2019s Hospice cared for 771 families. Relying primarily on fundraised income to fund its hospice services, LauraLynn care is completely free of charge to families.<\/p>\n
Sharon Lehane says LauraLynn is a lifeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re totally there for Kate, and for us as a family. They\u2019ve helped us make so many fantastic memories, things I never thought I\u2019d be able to do with Kate. They get the best and most out of her. They\u2019re like extended family to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Children\u2019s Hospice Week runs until May 24 \u2014 the theme is: \u2018Every minute matters, every child counts \u2014 because every little life deserves big moments.\u2019
\n For events\/awareness taking place during the week, visit lauralynn.ie<\/a> or donate at lauralynn.ie\/donate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In D\u00fan Laoghaire a couple of weekends ago, mum of four Sharon Lehane and her husband, Niall, watched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[51540,61,60,1786,756,80],"class_list":["post-455867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-parenting-teens","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-parenting","tag-parenting-advice","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455867","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=455867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}