a GoFundMe page<\/a> to try and raise enough money to seek treatments which could improve the quality of life for their son, Eliseo.<\/p>\nThe couple now live in Liverpool, although Shauna, originally from Keady, and Milford man Darren, frequently return to see family and friends.<\/p>\n
The GoFundMe page has raised over \u00a319,000 to date.<\/p>\n
But Shauna and Darren now hope to raise more to help them in their quest for a better life for Eliseo, especially after this week\u2019s latest diagnosis.<\/p>\n
The couple had been blessed with the birth of a baby daughter Alessia, now going on three years of age, followed by the arrival of twin boys, Eliseo and Luca, in December 2024.<\/p>\n
Shauna, speaking to Armagh I in February, explained: \u201cI had IVF and I got three embryos; Alessia was my first out of the first round of IVF, and then we did the other two embryos, when I got pregnant with the twins, but unfortunately they came very early at 28 weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Luca is thriving, Eliseo has been plagued by medical concerns which have proven traumatic for the whole family.<\/p>\n
The little boy has already spent much of his young life in hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince birth, he has faced significant medical challenges, including hydrocephalus, a brain bleed, and a rare form of epilepsy,\u201d explained Shauna. \u201cHe has already undergone 13 surgeries, most of them on his brain but, despite everything, he continues to fight every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cEliseo\u2019s twin, Luca, he\u2019s got no medical concerns. He\u2019s walking around the furniture, saying, Mama, Baba, Dada, and all of that. So it\u2019s quite hard that, Eliseo, his brother, is not doing anything really. He basically doesn\u2019t move.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shauna and Darren had been told that it was suspected Eliseo had cerebral palsy, but it could not be confirmed at that time.<\/p>\n
At an appointment on Wednesday, sadly, it was.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have since found out that he has got a bit of a hearing loss and he\u2019s got a visual impairment. \u2029He can see, but it\u2019s not perfect,\u201d said Shauna.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most recent diagnosis is global developmental delay and severe cerebral palsy in both upper and lower limbs. \u2029It\u2019s not looking good for him to be honest.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew it was going to happen at some stage, but we just weren\u2019t expecting it to be diagnosed yesterday. \u2029They\u2019re going to give us a bit of information, answer our questions, what this means now for Eliseo, his life expectancy and even just what he\u2019s doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to have an appointment next week and should know more about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were absolutely devastated. \u2029It was just horrendous news to be told. Even though we knew it was going to come at some stage, hearing the words was just devastating.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family had a physio through the NHS, but found it was \u201cnot enough\u201d for Eliseo. Going private, they noticed there had been more improvement, but at considerable expense.<\/p>\n
In addition, to undergoing physio and occupational therapy, Eliseo is also under the care of a neurosurgeon, because he had been diagnosed with hydrocephalus.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was the one who said that Eliseo\u2019s unlikely to ever walk or talk,\u201d explained Shauna. \u201cHe said I can\u2019t 100% tell you, but he\u2019s got severe brain damage and, you know, his future doesn\u2019t look good for him at all, to be honest with you.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s got multiple cysts in his brain and the ventricles in his brain don\u2019t communicate, because the cysts came with the meningitis he got.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was born in December 2024 and then he got hydrocephalus and then, after that, he needed surgery. So he was born in December, and then in January, he got a subcranial shunt. Basically, it\u2019s like a temporary measure until he\u2019s big enough to get the permanent VP shunt. That\u2019s life-saving, he needs that for the rest of his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got that done in March last year and he was actually doing okay for him. He started lifting his head, but then he got meningitis in May, for the second time, and that\u2019s where everything sort of went downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through the use of EVD \u2013 external ventricular drain \u2013 medics were essentially \u2019taking the infection\u2019 from Elisio\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n
Said Shauna: \u201cIt was just pus coming out that was in his brain. \u2029That was obviously the meningitis. He had one-to-one care for nine weeks in high dependency on the ward for that.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall he\u2019s had 13 surgeries, but most of them have been on his brain. Originally he only had one VP shunt and then in August he got two put in.\u201d<\/p>\n
After watching their son endure so much, the family wanted to explore stem cell treatment and private therapies that are not available on the NHS in the hope that they will make a difference. These, unfortunately, are only accessible abroad in countries such as Panama, Mexico, and the USA, and will require considerable financial outlay.<\/p>\n
But for Shauna, she said they made their decision to explore that avenue after seeing how much it had worked to help others.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously he\u2019s not moving at all, what I would say, and I\u2019ve seen kids on TikTok and on Facebook and they\u2019re doing these things after treatment. Like this one little girl, she wasn\u2019t lifting her head and now she is and she\u2019s doing really good with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that\u2019s when I started looking into it. \u2029I was like, oh, maybe we should go down this route. So I\u2019ve been in touch with a few places.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, such treatments are far from inexpensive and the family are desperate to do what they can for their little boy.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis private physio is \u00a3100 a week. \u2029And then he needs to see an OT and then we\u2019re doing hydrotherapy, so it all adds up,\u201d added Shauna. \u201cThis is something that he will need for the rest of his life, really.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the stem cell treatment, unfortunately, isn\u2019t just a one-off treatment, to see results. You do have to do multiple.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mum and dad opted to launch their public fundraiser and asked anyone who can help make a donation \u2013 or share their appeal \u2013 to do so.<\/p>\n
When they launched their appeal, Shauna said: \u201cWe\u2019ve got one chance of this. Let\u2019s just try and give him a better life.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur son has already survived more in his first year of life than most people face in a lifetime. This is our son\u2019s fight for a future.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family have so far raised over \u00a319,000 but, in reality, need to raise much more to deliver all that they hope to do for their darling son.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need as many people to see this as possible, just to try and get him abroad and get him this stem cell treatment and hope that it gives him a better life,\u201d Shauna said this week, after confirmation of this latest diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s horrible seeing him not make his milestones and just continuously taking over his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far, everyone\u2019s been amazing. We\u2019re so overwhelmed, in a nice way, with the donations, the charity things that have been going on, and the events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d like to thank everyone for their support, for the well wishes and donations. Everything\u2019s just been amazing and everyone\u2019s rallied around.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re still trying to process everything and understand what this means for the future. It\u2019s overwhelming, but we love Eliseo more than anything and will support him every step of the way. What we do know, doing this is something he needs more than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you would like to donate and help Eliseo access treatments, you can do so here.<\/a><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Darren and Shauna O’Reilly with their family. Eliseo pictured inset. A young County Armagh couple have been left…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":497887,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[27341,390,27340,59,102,913,50,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-497886","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-armagh-city","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-county-armagh","11":"tag-gb","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-latest-news","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Shauna-and-Darren-OReilly-and-family-with-Luca-inset.jpg\")
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