An Armagh man has been pleasantly surprised by his local community after fearing that no one would contribute to a fundraiser his daughters set up to help him through a rare, terminal disease.
Raymond Callaghan (64), who is more commonly known as ‘Boots’, was diagnosed with a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis called NSIP (nonspecific interstitial pneumonia) around five years ago.
It is a type of lung disease that causes inflammation between the air sacs of one’s lungs. And for Boots, it has been caused after 43 years of working as a bricklayer, breathing in cement dust.
“He would have left our house at 5am and would have returned about 7pm — and he did this commute five days a week for years and years so that he was home to see all of us in the evening,” his daughter Maeve (21) told the Belfast Telegraph.
Unfortunately, Boots will pass away from this condition, but thanks to a clinical drug trial his life has been extended for a few more years, enabling him to see his six children continue to grow up.
Raymond with his wife and six children, Rosie (24), Maggie, (23), Maeve (21), Leo (20), Laura (21) and Connie (13)
“Whenever Daddy was diagnosed, he was given two to three years to live”, Maeve explained.
“They gave him a trial drug which could extend it up to five years, and it’s coming up to five years now in January.
“He was willing to try anything at that point, because my youngest sister is only now 13.”
The Callaghan family, who live in Keady, are determined to help improve Raymond’s quality of life as best they can for the foreseeable future and they have been blown away by their local community’s support. Co Armagh people seem to be the best when it comes to helping each other in hard times, Maeve explained.
“Daddy was always the first person there if there was anything to be done to help, even if it was umpiring at any GAA games.
“He was on every committee going. He dressed up as Santa and St Patrick for years. Even after working hard all day and driving a 150-mile round trip, he never missed our matches or school plays and was always home to carry on with us or read us a story and say goodnight. He threw himself into anything he could, and it was always him helping everybody else.
“Whenever we started the GoFundMe, Daddy thought we would be the first people ever to receive no donations on a fundraising page, because he was embarrassed by it all. But in the first two or three days we had hit our target and now it’s sitting at nearly £20,000.
“We would never have been the ones to ask for help, and I know a lot of other people are the same, but the amount of people just from around the town offering help as well is just unreal.
“There are people offering to come up and sort plumbing and give any support they can. The community of Armagh is always very good like that.”
Raymond and daughter Maeve after one of her Armagh camogie matches
Maeve’s sister Maggie created the GoFundMe page as their dad recently had a big health scare, after contracting pneumonia, and it was thought that he could have died within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital.
“He nearly didn’t make it through and he’s gotten so much worse since the pneumonia,” Maeve added.
“He now needs a space on the ground floor of our house, which only has four bedrooms and seven people living in it.
“The charity Band of Builders is going to help install a wet room and an extension for him to have a downstairs bedroom with wheelchair access. All of the money from fundraising will go towards making him as comfortable as possible.”
September was also Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month and Boots wanted to highlight the support he has received from local charity Pulmonary Fibrosis NI.
The organisation has a WhatsApp group so that people with the disease can talk to each other and offer advice.
“In hospital, Mummy was showing us messages Daddy was sending in,” Maeve said.
“He was asking them how to tell us, his children, that he’s now getting into the later stages of the disease.
“That really helped Daddy over the last while, because it is a rare enough condition and it’s quite hard to get that kind of support from anywhere. They do Zoom calls as well.”
Pulmonary fibrosis causes a constant cough and shortness of breath and continues to worsen significantly over time.
Boots is now on a heavy dose of oxygen full time and can no longer go to watch Maeve and her sister play in camogie matches, something he had done just two days before recently being admitted to hospital.
“If you ask anyone around Keady, my daddy is always the first to volunteer to help anyone who asks him,” Maeve’s sister Maggie said.
“And he never made a fuss about it or looked for credit or thanks. He just always wanted to help if he were able to. So now it’s his turn to accept some help to make him more comfortable.”
You can find out more about Boots’ story on the GoFundMe page here.