A Galway boy is hoping he gets to celebrate his eighth birthday with an extra spring in his step – thanks to bone marrow donated by his big    sister.

Last October Tomás Fahy was diagnosed with Aplastic Anaemia after mammy Úna noticed some unusual bruising while he was going for swimming lessons.

The extremely rare condition where the bone marrow in his body does not produce enough red and white cells as well as platelets is said to affect two in a million people.

Tomás, who is an incredibly active lad – playing hurling, Gaelic football, soccer, rugby while managing to also fit in athletics and swimming – usually operates at 115% energy levels, admits his dad Pádraig. There were no other signs of him being unwell.

Since the early diagnosis thanks  to his mam’s intuition, he has been operating at about 80%.

“He is a little bit more lethargic. Luckily Úna took him to our local GP Dr Jennings and things moved incredibly quickly after blood tests were taken. He was actually dressed up as a policeman with his handcuffs on getting ready to go up to his cousins when things changed instantly – the readings raised alarm bells straight away.”

After being treated at Portiuncula Hospital and the children’s hospitals at Crumlin and Temple Street in Dublin, a bone marrow transplant was deemed to be his best chance of leading a normal, healthy life.

The parents, who run the Beechlawn Organic Vegetable Farm on the edge of Ballinasloe town, were the first to be tested to see if they could donate bone marrow.

When none of them were suitable, their three daughters then underwent tests which found that Róisín was the only match.

Caption: Tomás Fahy.

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 make a donation, search Tomás’s Journey with Aplastic Anaemia, on Gofundme.com.