Being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer at the age of 14 is devastating, but for Cian Neary being able to see his Labrador puppy Cooper was a lifeline during dark times.
Now, following Cian’s death in 2019, his family are ensuring other sick children can have access to their beloved pet cats or dogs, even when undergoing treatment in hospital.
The construction begins on Monday of a pet visiting facility in the grounds of CHI Crumlin hospital in Dublin. The initiative by Cian's Kennels, a registered charity set up by Cian's parents, Evelyn and Enda, seeks to bring pets closer to sick children and their families.
Families contact the charity, which then has the animals checked by vets to ensure they are up to date with vaccinations. The charity picks the pets up and transports them to the hospital, where the children will be able to have visits from the pets on an appointment basis. The animals will then return to the local Dublin Society of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) facility, where they will be boarded overnight.
Ms Neary said she hoped the charity could enable families to benefit from being surrounded by their pet, just as hers did when Cian was in hospital.
Cian’s diagnosis of Hepatosplenic T-cell lymphoma in September 2018 was a “really traumatic experience for all of us”, she said.
“We asked him: ‘What would you like? Is there anything that we can do to make you feel better?’ He got a Labrador puppy. Cooper,” she told The Irish Times.
“He never went back to school, or sports or anything after his diagnosis because he was on treatment. And so he spent a lot of time with Cooper and he trained him and he walked him every day and it became, you know, a little bit of a lifeline for him.”
Cian spent the last three months of his life in Crumlin hospital, and missed his dog.
The family brought Cooper up from Longford to Dublin, where he stayed in nearby kennels, and Cian saw him every day.
“When we look back now, that summer it [having Cooper] really was the only light there. It meant that we have photos of the two of them. It meant that we and he had time with Cooper; it meant that we had time together as a family,” she added.
After her own experience, Ms Neary thought that every child should have the opportunity to spend time with their furry friends. That’s when the idea of the charity was born.
“For me, I can’t wait for the day that I walk into a ward and say to a child ‘We’ve got a surprise. Your dog is here.’ Because that’s what happened with Cian,” she said.
“I do love the idea that in years to come, his name will still be mentioned up there at the hospital. That’s really important to me. That he’s not forgotten.”
Prof Aengus O’Marcaigh, a consultant paediatric haematologist at CHI Crumlin, said it was a “wonderful new initiative”.
“I saw first-hand the very positive influence that Cooper’s visits had on Cian during his prolonged hospitalisations,” he said.
“The provision of this new service will undoubtedly bring comfort to many more children and teenagers at a very difficult time for them.”
Work to construct the €100,000 visiting facility starts at the hospital on Monday, and will take six-eight weeks to complete.
It will include specially designed holding kennels for pets, complete with a seating area for families, an indoor and outdoor area for pets.
Families of children who are well enough to travel will also be able to visit their pets at the local DSPCA animal hotel, and bring them for walks on the track at that facility.
It is phase one of a two-phase project, the second of which will occur when the new children’s hospital opens at the St James’s site.
“Cian was one in a million, one in a world, and so it’s nice to be able to do something new in his name,” Ms Neary said.
