When Oughterard landscape gardener Malachy Ruane died ten months after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his wife and three kids felt their whole world crashing down. He was aged just 48.

Nothing could have prepared them for the tsunami of shock which followed the discovery just nine months later that the youngest in the family, Róisín, had Leukaemia.

Cliodhna – a primary school teacher in Scoil Mhuire Doireglinne just outside Oughterard – initially had to give up work when her husband became sick.

She finds herself unable to return to work as she cares full-time for nine-year-old Roisin, while she undergoes intensive treatment for at least the next two years.

The local community has rallied to do what they can to ease the burden on Cliodhna as they undergo the second biggest battle of their lives, explains Eimear Kyne, a friend who helped set up a crowd fundraising page for the family.

Caption: Cliodhna and the late Malachy Ruane with children Niamh, Róisín and MacDara.

Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.

To donate, search Roisin’s story or log onto: www.idonate.ie/crowdfunder/RoisinsStory.