Laura Kellegher is trying to raise £10,000 so that her son Louis can receive pioneering treatment

Collier Row community rallies to raise £10,000 needed for boy’s treatment

Lee-Ann Richards, Reporter Wednesday, March 13, 2013
7:00 PM

The friends and family of a boy with a rare hearing condition are rallying to raise cash for his treatment.

Four-year-old, Louis Kellegher from Riversdale Road, Collier Row needs urgent treatment, costing £10,000 to remove a tumour growing behind his ear drum, which has already taken away 70 per cent of his hearing.

Laura, Louis’s mum said: “It is a very rare condition in children, but without the treatment it will become life threatening.

“I am devastated for him, but I know I am going to get him that treatment to get him well.”

Louis was diagnosed with cholesteatoma last year, while he was undergoing surgery for a perforated eardrum.

Laura, 26 says that a treatment is available on the NHS, but there is a risk that he could lose the little hearing that he has left in the ear.

The operation also means that there is some risk of the cholesteatoma coming back.

The family is trying to raise money so that he can undergo a pioneering operation, which lasers the tumour away, but also reduces the need for further treatment.

Laura said: “I have done my research and this operation has a 95 per cent chance of saving his hearing.

“It is the best possible route for him and the only chance that he has of leading a normal life.”

Doctors first recognised something was wrong with Louis’s hearing, when he contracted an ear infection when he was just two.

But it wasn’t until last November that he was diagnosed with cholesteatoma,

He has been fitted with two hearing aids to try to improve his hearing, but it has failed to work.

St Patrick’s School in Lowshoe Lane in Collier Row, where Louis attends has organised a non uniform day next week and a school disco to try to raise the funds needed for his treatment.

Laura said: “Everyone is really rallying around to help.

“The headmistress is trying to get the other kids involved and to do their bit.”

To donate visit http://gogetfunding.com/project/help-little-louis

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