Tiarnan Trainor
The mother of a 13-year-old Co Armagh boy who lost his life in a tragic quad bike accident earlier this month has spoken of her admiration for the emergency services and medical staff who did everything to try and save his young life.
Tiarnán Trainor (TT), died as a result of a quad bike collision in the Killeavy area on January 2.
Emergency first responders worked valiantly to save his life but sadly Tiarnán passed away at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast, as a result of his injuries.
His heartbroken mother, Majella, has since set up a fundraising page to give something back to the emergency services – NI Air Ambulance service; Belfast Hospital for Sick Children Emergency Department; and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit – that tirelessly tried to save Tiarnán’s life that day.
Speaking to Armagh I, Majella says she has been overwhelmed by the community’s response. So far the page has raised in excess of £65,000.
“My initial target was £4,000 and I thought that I could just give them £1,500 each. I thought, if I could get that for them, that would be good,” she said.
“It has only been up a week yesterday, and it has just raised so much money; like everybody that’s on that fundraiser, either me or Tiarnán’s daddy know them, so it’s all local people.”
Majella spoke of her regret at not having a donation box in place before Tiarnán’s funeral.
“It was a day after Tiarnán’s funeral, and me and my older daughter, and a couple others were sitting there; I just said, or my first initial thought was that I was regretting that we didn’t put a donation box, you know, at the funeral, or at the wake, because we had thousands upon thousands of people come through my house. I don’t even know, people are saying about 7,000 or 8,000 people.
“That was my initial regret that I didn’t put a donation box, but I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time. So, myself and my daughter spoke about it on the Wednesday afterwards and we decided we would set up the GoFundMe page.”
Majella added: “It’s fresh in people’s minds, and people will be keen to help, and donate. The Air Ambulance and those in the emergency department and the intensive care in the paediatrics at the Royal in Belfast were just phenomenal. I have no words for those people. What they did for Tiarnán, they gave him every opportunity for survival.”
Majella, a nurse herself in an Emergency Department, is all too accustomed to situations she found herself in as a parent.
“You come across cases like these, all too frequently, maybe too much. You’re in a professional role, and you do everything you can to save these people but when you see it from the other side you put all your trust in them. You nearly look at them as if they’re God and just ‘please save my child’. You know there’s only so far they can go and what they can do and Tiarnan, sadly, just wasn’t responding to what they were trying to do.”
While Majella is living out every parent’s worst nightmare, she remains determined to continue to help support others in her son’s name.
For her, the fundraiser was something she had to do.
“I looked at those people who worked so hard and I just thought, ‘no, I need to give back to these people’. I know how much of a struggle the NHS is at the minute and these people – nurses and doctors and everybody else – they’re overworked.”
Majella recalls that night in the Royal in Belfast where there was one nurse – “I just can’t get her face out of my head,” she said.
“I knew she was finished her shift at 4pm, and she was still there at one o’clock in the morning. You know, these people go above and beyond to help. It’s not like a job to these people.”
Tiarnán will have a special place in the hearts of so many people but none more so than that of his mummy. To her, he was “extra special”.
“He was a wee boy who just loved to be liked and loved,” said Majella.
“He would be so proud that everybody has come together. It’s hard to describe him as a child because he, as much as every child, is special, but there was just something extra special about Tiarnán – he was just phenomenal.
“He had so much love to give to everybody. You know, there wasn’t anybody that was left untouched by him. He just spread his love around so evenly. You just felt loved by him, no matter who, or what, you were.”
Just as mourners at Tiarnán’s funeral heard, he packed so much into his all too short life, but his name – and beautiful legacy – will live on in his family and wider community.
The fundraiser, says Majella, is probably only the start.
“Tiarnán received a lot of blood on the evening and night of his accident,” she continued.
“Other family members are now keen to maybe get something going that we all go and donate blood. There are other things too; he was massive into trucks and hopefully in the future, we’ll get a truck run.
“There was that much that he was into, you couldn’t keep up with him. I often say he was like my first full time job and my actual job was my second full time job.
“I have two other girls and they wouldn’t give you a quarter of the work that Tiarnán would give you. He was always looking you to get this, or do this, or go here, buy this. He had so many big dreams and plans.”
To donate to Majella’s fundraiser follow the link here.