People are being asked to rally behind the family of a young Irish boy as he has been left paralysed after suffering a fall in a hotel on a family trip to Disneyland in France.
Kevin O'Callaghan, from Mallow in Co Cork, had to undergo an emergency in Paris last week and finally made it back to Ireland on Wednesday night.
One of eight siblings, he had been enjoying the holiday of a lifetime having just visited the Eiffel Tower and the Parc des Princes football stadium, but later during the trip he fell in the soft play area of a hotel and lost all feeling in his body.
His sister Rachel, who is a 25-year-old primary school teacher in Mallow, says that she and her mother immediately knew that something was very wrong.
She told Cork Beo: "Kevin is the sportiest little fella, he plays a lot of sport including hurling, football and soccer, so he's taken a knock before. When he said he couldn't feel anything after he hit the ground we initially thought it might be a concussion, but after he was taken to hospital for scans we knew something was seriously wrong."
Kevin had suffered compression of the spine and neck, following an MRI he was rushed into emergency surgery. Only his mother Eilis was able to accompany him to hospital due to current Covid-19 regulations in France - she hasn't left his side once in the last two weeks.
Rachel says that her entire family has been in shock, and focused until recently on getting Kevin home to Ireland.
"Any of us would take it away from him in a heartbeat, he isn't the kind of child who likes to sit in or play video games, his whole life is outdoors, we are just hoping with the right treatment that he can make a good recovery and we could see him walking in the next year," she said.
Now they are asking people to donate what they can towards his recovery costs. He is currently being treated at Temple Street in Dublin and has a long road ahead which will include acute rehab to help him regain as much physical function as possible, as time is of the essence.
The O'Callaghans are also going to have to make structural changes to their house to meet his needs in the future.
"Any support people can give is much appreciated, we are already so grateful for the way the local community has rallied behind us, including the support of politicians when we were trying to get Kevin home," Rachel said.
"We are a very close family with eight siblings, aged from 28 to 8-years-old. We've been supporting each other through this and we are all focused on Kevin making the best recovery possible.
"It has been difficult for my youngest sister Emma, as she has had to cancel her upcoming birthday party. She was going to a GAA training session this week as well and wasn't going to given the circumstances, but Kevin said he wanted her to go, that's the kind of little boy he is," she said.
You can support Kevin and his family through the GoFundMe page here.
