Terminally-ill Donegal woman to get dream Florida holiday

A terminally-ill Donegal woman says the chance to take her family on a holiday to Florida has given her a 'lease of new life'.

Leanne Browne, a native of Castlefin, has been battling cancer for several years, but in 2022 she received the devastating news that her cancer is inoperable.

The defiant Leanne has launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to help take her family – husband Ciaran and children Luke (17), Jodie (14), Conor (10) and Ryan (8) on a dream holiday.

Over €33,600 has been pledged and you can donate by clicking here.

'The community propelled me to the finish'

Creeslough native John McGee completed a gruelling Ironday challenge, a 233km of swim, cycle and run around Donegal, in aid of three organisations who assisted at the Creeslough explosion

“This trip has honestly made me get up and take the bull by the horns, it’s given me a lease of new life to organise and prepare the kids and I, the excitement of something to look forward to,” Leanne wrote.

The appeal received overwhelming support with Leanne sharing details of her journey.

She wrote: “I know what my prognosis is, I do not have long on this earth. This kills me that I will not see my children grow up get married, or become a grandmother, all the things we take for granted.“

A qualified hairdresser and make-up artist, Leanne is well known in the Finn Valley having worked at the China Tower and Oriental restaurant.

She first noticed something amiss when in the bath just a couple of weeks before her best friend's wedding. She felt 'a hard non-moveable lump' and panic set in for Leanne, who watched her own mother battle breast cancer.

A biopsy confirmed that she has the same BRCA 2 mutated gene as her mother.

After undergoing a double mastectomy, Leanne had 17 gruelling sessions of chemotherapy,

“After treatments were completed I had a new scan and the results from this were extremely exciting, I was cancer free,” she said.

“This was a new outlook, and I could return to my life to normal everyday challenges with kids.

Everything was going great, and I healed very well.”

After deciding to have her breasts redone, Leanne felt her back going into spasms. Initially given the green light in 2021, the pain became unbearable.

A series of MRIs, CT scans and ultrasounds came and went without answers. Until, a fateful meeting with her doctor confirmed that cancer had returned, spreading into her bones.

Leanne has been steadfast in insisting she receive palliative care home.

Her husband, family and friends she says have helped give her a push and now a dream visit to the Sunshine State is on the horizon.