"We would give everything to have Laura back"

“The worst thing that could happen to any family has already happened to us,” said Ian Carroll this week, as he reflected on the incalculable loss of his adored youngest daughter, 12-year old Laura, after a bleed on the brain just over a year ago.

The tragedy, which has left Ian, his wife, Lorraine and their remaining daughter, 14-year Aoife “devastated and heartbroken” was the catalyst for a major charity cycle on Friday last which has already raised over €28,000 for the Children’s Health Foundation Temple Street. Cloonakilla primary school pupil Laura passed away in Temple Street Children’s Hospital on March 28 last year, two days after she suffered a brain bleed in the early hours of the morning at the Carroll family home in Corrán Riada, Monksland.

Ian Carroll says his daughter received “exceptional care” from the staff in Temple Street Hospital after she was transferred there from Portiuncula in Ballinasloe for emergency surgery, and it was always their intention to organise a fundraising event for the hospital at some stage.

However, the company that Ian works for, IN2, stepped up and organised a special cycle challenge which saw staff from their Athlone, Dublin, Belfast and London offices cycling three set routes on Friday last, with the longest stretch being the 130km route from Dublin to Athlone. IN2 is an engineering consultancy company, specialising in MEP design, building services and sustainability solutions which was founded in 2002 and Ian Carroll heads up the Athlone office, which is based in Inis Carrig. Last Friday’s charity cycle, which was entirely organised by a small core group of staff from IN2 and was held in memory of Laura Carroll, initially set a fundraising target of €10,000, which had to be quickly doubled due to the scale of the donations coming in. “We now have over €28,000 raised, and we are still accepting donations on the JustGiving fundraising platform,” says Ian.

On Friday last, Ian took part in the charity cycle from Athlone to Mullingar where he met up for lunch in Red Earth with the group of what he describes as “good cyclists” from the Dublin, Belfast and London offices of IN2 who had set out earlier from Dublin.

The Athlone group which included Ian’s wife, Lorraine, daughter Aoife and staff from the Athlone IN2 office cycled the greenway to Mullingar and then returned to Athlone, a distance of some 90km.

“It was a very emotional and bittersweet day for us,” he says, “but we were uplifted to see the huge numbers that turned out and the great support from everyone, and we found it very comforting and special to have the cycle held in memory of Laura."

Ian Carroll and his family are “extremely grateful” to IN2 for organising the fundraiser and to the people who have made donations, and they hope that the funds raised will result in some other child’s life being saved in Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

Despite the fact that she was born with severe hearing loss, Ian Carroll said his beloved youngest daughter “touched the hearts of everyone she met” and lived a very happy and fulfilled life. “She was an extremely selfless little girl who was always caring and considerate of others, so it was totally fitting that the charity cycle to help other children and families was held in her memory,” he says.

As a proud Mayo man, one of the things Ian Carroll takes great solace from is the fact the little Laura also loved Mayo. “In fact, she always felt she was from Mayo too,” he says. One of her favourite places was Mulranny beach and she even had a Mayo GAA jersey. When she was born in 2008, her uncle (Ian’s brother) gave her a present of a number plate with the iconic inscription’ 08 MO Laura’ which Ian proudly attached to his bicycle on Friday last for his round trip cycle from Athlone to Mullingar.

He is also very proud of the fact that last Friday’s cycle was an opportunity to showcase the town of Athlone and the greenway network to his IN2 colleagues from the other offices of the company, many of whom had never visited the Midlands before. “They were very impressed with Athlone and the greenway,” he says. Over one year on from the death of Laura Carroll, her Dad says the staff from Temple Street are “still in touch with the family” and the care and compassion shown to them by every staff member they encountered in the hospital during Laura’s short time there, and since her death, has been “truly exceptional.”

He says the family know that the staff “did everything possible” to save Laura’s life, and they are now hoping that the funds raised through the IN2 charity cycle can spare some other family the pain and grief that they are now enduring and will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

“We would give everything to have Laura back,” admits her grieving Dad, “but we hope that the funds raised from the charity cycle in her memory will help the staff in Children’s Health Foundation Temple Street to help other families in their hour of need.”