It truly makes me sick to my stomach to know that a family with young children was forced out of OUR country because we refused to treat a sick child. Ava Barry is a 7 year old girl who USED to live 10 miles away from me in a little village called Aghabullogue. The poor thing has suffered from a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy since birth. Having 100's of seizures each year and sometimes as many as 16 seizure's per day, her mother Vera Twomey had enough.
It had been well documented that cannabis oil, specifically THC, could drastically improve Ava's quality of life. This left Vera with quite a dilemma because THC in any form is illegal in Ireland. Vera could of course procure the marijuana illegally to treat Ava but that could lead to serious complications. The Government could decide to take Ava and her other 3 children away and even put her in jail if she choose to help her baby.
This is the point in which Vera started her lawful and heroic campaign to put the suffering that not only Ava, but so many must endure on a daily basis due to neglect, greed and misinformation spread around by at best, poorly informed representatives of the people.
Vera decided to walk from her home in County Cork, 260km to the Dail in Dubin city in an attempt to raise awareness for her daughter. During her walk she met with many people who joined her in solidarity. It gained serious traction and garnered massive awareness. Many newspapers and radio stations covered the walk.
Nearing it's close, due to the strenuous 260km walk, Vera had no choice to complete the last leg in a wheelchair after attempting crutches to no avail.
From that point Vera continued to campaign day after day, week after week,month after month. Travelling from one political gathering to another in an attempt to speak with anyone with power. This was met with truly horrible behavior. Our so called leaders did everything they could to avoid a conversation with Vera.
In a last effort to get Ava the help she needs/deserves. Vera and a local politician Gino Kenny left with Ava on a plane to spain. There they met with a doctor who prescribed Ava the medicine she needed. They then took this medicine back to Ireland and declared it in Customs. Customs seized the medicine but choose not to press charges.
So now what choice was Vera left with?
She had to pack and move to the Netherlands. Her kids have to learn a new language and lost all there friends. All the support Vera could of received here from family and long time friends is gone. They are forced to start over with nothing in a strange country. Such SHIT!!!!!
On a happier note, since starting her new treatment in the Netherlands Ava has not had a seizure in 7 days, which as far as I know is the longest she has went in years. If with steemits help we can add even one seizure free day then we have done a great thing!
So I ask you all to donate directly to her go fund me page- https://www.gofundme.com/qcn2a-ava-barry
For the people who Donate, I would suggest this. When you leave a comment please include your Steemit home page. Mine for example would be https://steemit.com/@gnimeets
I think it would be great publicity for steemit. I do not see why we can't have more than one good thing arise from this.
I have no Idea how this will be received or if people will even see it. But please understand there is no greater cause than helping those who need it.
So again I ask anyone who is reading this to consider helping a stranger.
(Of course anything raised from this post will be donated)