A family have appealed for help to get a Co Tyrone man home from the United States where he was receiving cancer treatment.
Cormac McLaughlin, from Castlederg, had travelled to Texas where he was accepted on a to a clinical trial to help save his life. However, his family have now said their priority is to get Cormac home as the treatment has been unsuccessful
The family had raised almost €200,000 to get Cormac to the US in a last ditch effort to treat the aggressive form of cancer following the discovery of a brain tumour in 2020. The Castlederg native first complained to family of blurred vision and slurred speech last year, and after an MRI scan their worst fears were confirmed.
Cormac's brother said he had suffered a number of serious seizures and himself and the family are now looking to get an air ambulance to fly him home. Booking a commercial flight home is not an option due to his condition.
Darragh says it is heartbreaking to see his brother's fail so far away from home.
"It's heartbreaking because even though we have great support from people around here and everyone is as good as they can be, you still feel isolated and cut off from home," Darragh told Belfast Live.
"Our whole focus now is just on keeping him alive and getting him home. Cormac has said a number of times he just wants to get home.
"Some family members aren't able to travel over to be with him, it would be great for him to be able to get home and see his friends and family before anything would happen to him.
"I've stayed with him every second since he got here. His wife Krystal was able to fly out there as well so it's been great to have her here too. and other family members have arrived as well.
"We either try and do this for him or we don't. When you're in this situation you realise everybody has already been so kind and so good. The goodwill for Cormac is there because of how good a lad he is, so many people have been in touch with me talking about what a good fella he is.
"It's obviously a really expensive trip, it may cost us up to £100,000 but that's just what we have to do. We've been paying for treatment here as we go and for flights and all that which has been eating into that fundraising money.
In an update shared by the family on their Care for Cormac page, they said their focus had now changed to getting Cormac home to make him as comfortable as possible.
“Cormac was doing great, getting on well on the trial and awaiting targeted radiotherapy. He was in great form until a few days ago, when he suffered a series of unexpected & catastrophic seizures,” they said.
“He is now in ICU here in Texas. He has responded more & more each day and they say he is slowly stabilising. The doctors can not believe his strength and determination.
“Our focus has now changed…We want to make Cormac as comfortable as possible and transfer him home to Ireland, as per his wishes.
“We ask for your further continued financial support (which has been just incredible so far) to help us get him back & we ask for prayers at this difficult and uncertain time. Thank you so much.”
Cormac, 38, received the devastating diagnosis a year ago while he was working as a primary school teacher in Hong Kong. had been engaged to get married to now wife Krystal, and the two tied the knot just a day before Cormac flew home to have his diagnosis confirmed by doctors here.
Care for Cormac's fundraising page can be viewed here.
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