Philippa McCarthy

THANK YOU!

I’m running 100km in February for GOSH Charity! 

I’m challenging myself to run and walk 100km this February to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity. 

Luca’s story

Great Ormond Street Hospital was a place I knew of but never had anything to do with until it quickly became the lifeline for our 2 week old baby. 

Luca was born on 02/10/2025 and appeared to be a healthy baby. 

On 14/10 I noticed his left eye wasn’t opening and had started to look swollen. We took him to hospital where he had a CT scan. This showed a mass behind his eye, at the base of his brain. 

An MRI scan then showed the mass was also covering the entrance to his nasal passage. An investigation commenced to identify what this mass was exactly and how it could be treated. 

We were transferred to John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where a further MRI scan was completed. The consultants here believed the mass could be a brain aneurysm. 

They wanted to conduct an Angiogram to confirm whether it was an aneurysm, however there were only two surgeons in the country who could carry out this procedure on a baby as small and young as Luca. 

This surgeon worked out of GOSH, so we were transferred there, and arrived in the early hours of 16/10, with the surgeon available to complete the Angiogram that afternoon. 

Luca was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and had a 1:1 nurse. We were provided with accommodation in the hospital and the family liaison worker provided support and information on services. Luca’s day and night nurses were amazing and looked after him so well. They kept us updated when we weren’t able to be in the ward with him, they were empathetic, understanding and caring. The surgeon performing the Angiogram gave us the assurance that everything was going to be okay, explained the procedure and was patient with my questions. He had only done this procedure once before on a child (who was much older than Luca) as it was so rare. 

The Angiogram was successful - this involved Luca being anaethetised and the surgeon threading a tube through Luca’s hand up into the blood vessel leading to his brain behind his eye, and inserting a coil to cut the blood supply so the vessel would no longer swell, preventing the aneurysm from bursting. 

Luca stayed at GOSH for another couple of days then we were transferred back to John Radcliffe (see the photo of the Pan-bulance below!). 

In what was probably the worst few days of our lives, the team at GOSH made it that little less overwhelming and ultimately saved Luca’s life. (We were also cared for very well by the teams at MK hospital and John Radcliffe). 

We were only in hospital for a week with Luca, however we met a couple of families along the way who had already and were going to be, at GOSH for the foreseeable. 

For these families, every donation really does make a difference and will go a long way in providing not only the care their child needs, but the childhood they deserve. There are many fun activities planned throughout the week for the children and great support for the parents, however this can only continue with kind donations as we all know the NHS can only fund so much. 

*Disclaimer*

This is a running challenge but I may have to walk some of it as I am not a runner and have a 3 month old! I will do all I can though and my sister has kindly offered to make up any km’s I am short of at the end. 

I will post updates along the way. 

Thank you for reading Luca’s story and please do donate where you can. We are very grateful for anything you can give - THANK YOU!! 

Philly, Dave and Luca x