Hello Jack Treacy from Shannon, Ireland was born healthy and happy in Janurary 2001. Within a few weeks he had stopped thriving and his PHN was worried about him. He was referred to a consultant in our local hospital and on reviewing him Jack was immediately admitted into the Rainbow ward in the Childrens Ark in Limerick as it was noticed that his breathing was quite laboured and he was severly under weight. After 2 days they put a feeding tube in him and also hooked him up to oxgyen, "Just for now to help his breathing" we were told(we didn't realise how long "just for now" would end up being!!).  After a week of tests no diagnosis was made and Jack was then sent to Our Ladys Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin, Dublin where he lived for almost 4 weeks. There he underwent test after test after test, followed by xrays scans and blood tests nearly every other day.  As a last resort they gave him a Lung Biopsy  and this showed that Jack had a condition called Interstitial Pneumonitis, (afterwards we were told that this is a general term for the type of lung disease that Jack has and that at the moment he is undiagnosed) Jack went through the next few years meeting all his milestones and generally having a 'normal' life. The fact that he was tube fed for 2 years and was in and out of hospital made no difference to him, neither did the fact that he had to be hooked upto an oxygen tank 24/7. His oxygen just became a part of him and in fact it was strange to see him without the tubes on his face.

Fortunately after about 3 and a half years Jack was able to go the three hours required without oxygen to go to his local Montessori school and then  to last the day in St Conaires Primary School too and from there we weaned him off all day long. When he was almost 8 years of age we were able to wean him off the night time oxygen too,. 

In 2012 Jack caught another 'virus' which has left him needing oxygen at night again and it made me research the internet again as I had done so on and off over the years but as I didn't have an exact diagnosis for Jack it made it very hard to look up and find what he had... We did know that he had an Interstitial Lung Disease but his symptoms did not match the adult ones we looked up...  and while browsing through the internet I came across chILD UK.(children with Interstitial Lung Disease)    

I joined their forum and was finally after 11 years I was able to talk to other parents with children with the same condition. 

Seeing all their stories made was unreal to see, watching all these little babies grow in the same way Jack had. They invited us to meet with them on a special conference for "Children with Interstitial Lung Disease" (chILD) which was held in the UK. At the moment here in Ireland there are only a handful of cases, literally a handful, so chILD UK covers Ireland too and includes us in giving us all the support and help we need. Being at the confernce made us realise just how rare Jacks condition is and how important fundraising is. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and reading Jack's story.

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