Mother of Late Late Toy Show hero who died of cancer slams DJ Carey

‘How low do you stoop?’

Saoirse warmed the hearts if the nation when she appeared on the Late Late Show, speaking incredibly bravely and maturely on her bone cancer, which had caused her to lose a leg.

She sadly passed away in March last year at the age of 12.

Her mother said: “Saoirse, she would have looked up to the likes of DJ Carey at one point years ago. And you know, the lowest thing like that photo, I just find it so triggering, because our personal experience was that she needed to be fed that way.

“I remember countless conversations with the consultant about what way we’d go about it, because, as DJ Carey showed there, with a charger for a phone, that is the nasogastric version of how people have to be fed when they’re too ill, or they’re too weak, or they’re losing weight rapidly. And for Saoirse, that was a massive conversation for us very early on.

“After diagnosis, and when she started her chemotherapy, she started to lose weight at a rapid, rapid rate. That first Christmas, Christmas 2020, she actually ended up being in the hospital for that Christmas because she was so sick.

“I remember her being let out on Christmas Day for an hour. She couldn’t sit in and eat dinner with us. She just, she was on these [milk]shakes, and I don’t want to, you know, upset anyone by this detail, but she just was continuously vomiting that day because she couldn’t keep her food down.

“Back up in Crumlin, then, discussions were had as we needed to get nutrients into her. And this picture is so triggering, because Saoirse fought and fought to not have that nasogastric tube placed. I remember the conversations with her doctors and saying, “Please, is there any other way?” Because it is actually a very unpleasant thing to have for anyone who’s gone through treatment.

“I had it myself as a child, and I was ill myself, and the consultant came around and even sat down and said to her, ‘Saoirse, what exactly is it that is really upsetting for you about the nasogastric tube, because you have to have it.’

“And she said it was the visual aspect of it. She didn’t want her friends in school to look at her any differently. And it’s just, you see this photo [of Carey], and you think, ‘My God, how low, how low do you stoop?’

“And, as you said, that photo circulating, and it’s been used a little bit as a joke in some contexts, and that is very hurtful to people like us who have walked through this.”

After the interview, Roseanna shared a post to her social media thanking everyone for their support and firing back at those who’d mock “such a cruel, horrendous disease.”

She wrote: “Thank you for your lovely messages of support off the back of my conversation with @johncookeradio on today’s @rteradio1.

“She, along with so many others, didn’t ask for a cancer diagnosis. She didn’t deserve it. She didn’t ask to have her leg amputated, to have tumour after tumour diagnosed until cancer claimed her.

“I’m fuelled with anger at the antics of a particular GAA player for the disrespect and lack of empathy he has for genuinely sick people. But I’m also fuelled with so much pride for the little girl here who actually went through it and fought with every bone in her little body to stay living.

“Shame on anyone who mocks such a cruel, horrendous disease. Thinking of all the mommies and daddies who have watched their child take their last breath.

“I’ll always ALWAYS advocate for childhood cancer and child loss by telling her story and speaking her name.”