Muireann O'Connell: Cara,
you're meant to be doing this
when you're 16 years old.
You are 11.
Why are you sitting
the Junior Cert maths exam?
Cara Darmody: Well,
I decided to do it to raise funds
for Ardfinnan
National School
and Scoil Cormaic
to get therapies for the lack of services
and all that.
MOC: The lack of services for whom?
What sort of services, Cara?
CD: Like O.T.
speech and language
and like things to do with the brain
and all that. MOC:
And this is for your brothers especially.
You've got two brothers who are autistic.
CD: Well, it's not for my brothers.
It's for other families
because there's like 300 children
in those schools
who really need the help.
So we want to help.
MOC: There's how many?
Mark Dormody:
Yes there's
Scoil Cormaic special school in Cashel
would have about 221 pupils, Ardfinnan
then would have special needs,
you know, about 75.
So look, Cara has 2 brothers
that would be severely autistic.
So we live in this world
and it's a world of,
I suppose, lack of services, a world of,
you know,
constant struggles
every single day
to try and get the basic needs
and the basic services.
So Cara came to me
last September with her idea,
if you want to tell your idea.
Tommy Bowe:
So where did this idea come from Cara?
CD: I just thought of it.
So last September,
my dad was just drinking his cup of tea,
and I came into the kitchen
and I told him
I wanted to do something impossible.
And he was expecting me to say
that we go out
kicking the balls in the field
or something or wash a few cars
or something like that
or wash the windows
or something like that.
And I told him that
even though people would tell me
that it was impossible
that I would sit
the Junior Cert paper this year,
and he almost died, so I had to start CPR
on him.
But the best part is that
when he was starting
to recover from the shock.
I told him that
he was going to be teaching me,
and then we really had to start CPR.
MOC: You had to sort him out.
TB: I'd say so.
I mean, that's incredible, isn't it?
Tell us about
Cara's two brothers, Neil and John.
Cara: Well,
I suppose
as like most people will know, I've
two severely autistic brothers.
They're,
Neil and John, and Neil is nine
and John is five.
And basically
they're both severely autistic.
Which means
they don't really understand
comprehension that much and
they can't talk
and like there's,
there's like a million
and one different things as well.
MOC: And it does feel like, Mark,
there's a great need
within the community.
And when you are looking for services
in Tipperary,
like you've mentioned,
200 and over 220 children,
how do you feel that those are being met?
Because I know your children
weren't diagnosed for a while, Neil
or John.
MD: Yes,
it was like,
I mean we were oblivious to it with Neil.
So like Neil is nine
like Cara said now
he was diagnosed at almost four.
So like we lost the window
of opportunity there
and then you start the struggle
for your services
and that's where the messing starts.
So John,
we were very clued in
and he was diagnosed
privately at one and three quarters.
So but the HSE
then didn't diagnose him
until he was four and a quarter.
So that's two and a half years
once again would have been lost.
But I can give just
a very simple example.
After years of pressure, we actually got
a doctor's appointment last week
with a pediatrician
who told us that our boy Neil
who's nine, is severe
and that he needs psychiatry
so that there's another level
above psychology even,
and but that there's
no one in the southeast at the moment.
Because the one person who did
it is now retired.
So there is like,
I often talk about
lack of access to services,
but actually even last week,
there is no service.
And he's severe.
So he needs it as a matter of urgency.
And the person who's retired
actually reported on Neil
a couple of years ago to say
that he needed intervention immediately
and that was sat on by the HSE
and nothing was done about it.
He wasn't reassessed, he wasn't examined.
And you're all at the time
trying to put this pressure on.
But often
the service just isn't even there
in the first place.
TB: And you mentioned that he is severe.
Is that due to his delayed
diagnosis and what do you mean by severe?
MD: Well, I suppose
first of all and again,
look, it's heartbreaking
for us to have to
come on and even talk about it
and it's heartbreaking for Cara
to even see these things.
But like Neil will bite himself,
hit himself,
he has no
comprehension of the ordinary things,
not to do things to yourself.
So like we were all at the time
trying to patch him up
literally on an hour by hour basis.
And unfortunately,
we all see that and it's wicked troubling
So this isn't a close call
and he has no comprehension.
He doesn't understand a single word.
So like this is severe on all levels
and like the help needed is immediate
and it's urgent.
MOC: Because he's in a nine year
old body now.
TD: That's
what Cara says
that he's a nine month
old trapped in a nine year old's body.
MOC: So he doesn't
he doesn't know what dangers are.
He doesn't get any of that.
CD: Like he doesn't understand
like even what dangers are like.
He doesn't even understand
like what that even is like.
That's how severe it is.
MOC: It must be very hard
to look a Cara,
to be around and to see your parents
you know, trying to sort this out.
CD: Yeah, I suppose it is.
But we could be sitting down on the couch
crying about it.
But we're
trying to do something
to help other people
because we love to help
other people in this family.
TB: And you can see why you're the best
big sister ever to do this.
And it's not just about your own family.
You're doing this to help
so many other people
because this delayed diagnosis
is so difficult
to think that you have
for John
that you knew
you had to get it done privately.
And then he is actually
I suppose, better progressed
than Neil because of that,
because he was able to be taught
these things.
MD: There's no doubt about Tommy.
Exactly.
And like we've managed to develop.
But even something simple like toilet
training like Neil
will never be toilet trained,
John,
we've made a little bit of progress.
So there's subtle progress there.
And it's all down to,
you know, having a better awareness.
And because we're not the experts,
no parent is the expert in this.
Like you really are oblivious to it
but on the second child,
you're not oblivious.
You're very clued in immediately.
But why should it have to be like that?
You know,
like surely these services
should be like
nobody's asking for immediate services,
but just a reasonable time period.
People might wait a few months,
but when you're waiting years
or in our case,
we're actually being told
there is nobody to see you.
I mean, it's just shocking stuff, to
be honest, you know?