OPINION: Join Together for Joey hitting target is everything I love about Offaly

I've been following the story of little Joey Conway for a few weeks now when it first appeared in the pages of the Tullamore Tribune and the Join Together for Joey page popped up on my own social media timeline. I always try and support these local causes, especially with coverage on Offaly Live and elsewhere, but Joey's story just hit a little harder than most. 

It's difficult to explain why but reading parents Natalie and Tommy's story from that first bout of Strep last year and such a rare and hard to treat diagnosis just puts you in their shoes instantly. They're an ordinary Offaly family like all of us who had a two-year-old boy perfectly healthy and happy until that picture changed and turned their whole lives upside down. They nearly lost him after he spent time on a ventilator in ICU.

For those of you who don't know, little fighter Joey, who is now a beacon of hope in Offaly and further afield, was diagnosed with Portal Vein Thrombosis (PVT), which has led to a serious and rare condition Non-cirrhotic Portal Hypertension. Portal Hypertension has life-threatening symptoms and the risk of death is 40% on a first episode of bleeding. The bleeding comes from varices that develop in his oesophagus so he will either bleed from his mouth or through his nappies.

A surgery in the US can save him but the cost is so extortionate, it must have seemed impossible to gather for Natalie and Tommy, but they tried, and Offaly people rallied. The €330,000 target has now been reached and seeing it tick up and up from €20,000 to €50,000 to €200,000 and now €330,000, it just warms the heart. Local people, in the tightest financial month of the year for most, just kept giving and finding more ways to spread the word. Life is so cruel and yet people are sometimes so generous and humane in their actions that it almost makes you forget.

I know donations came in from all over the world but primarily this started locally and was driven by family and friends. Offaly GAA got the message out and were pictured with Joey and his parents prior to the county's O'Byrne Cup game with Laois in recent weeks. County chairman Michael Duignan put a public callout for support and then Shane Lowry put his name and huge public figure behind it. He donated €10,000 personally and inspired another flurry of donations this week. The last €120,000 was raised in the last two days.

God willing the money keeps rising and Joey gets to Chicago for his treatment. When he returns, he will get a hero's welcome back home to Offaly where as the saying goes, everybody knows his name. And that's because his story has touched so many of us in different ways. We all know people who have been in dire situations and we've been there ourselves. The Irish way of rallying in communities is unrivalled around the world. It's the same virtue that sees people bringing food and warmth to houses where people are bereaved and school choirs to nursing homes to sing at Christmas. I might be biased but Offaly has this kindness in spades and Joey brought it out in us all again this month.

We will all be watching for updates on Joey like he was our own son, grandson, nephew or little brother. Candles will be lit in churches in every village and priests will be flooded with Novenas and intentions. There's something very wholesome and reassuring about that. People always find room in their hearts to think of others despite all their own challenges and that's a great quality in people.

And if more help is needed for Joey, Offaly people will go back to the well again because that kid is one of us. As Michael Duignan said about the GAA "never leaving anyone behind," the same goes for this county and community around Tullamore and all over.

When you're in Chicago, we'll all be there with you, Natalie, Tommy, Joey and his siblings Jordi and Molly.