Parents raising funds for Zoe fear home is thieves’ target
THE family fundraising for life-changing surgery for their two-year-old girl have been the victims of two attempted break-ins.
Now they have been forced to explain that none of the cash that has been raised is kept in their Dundalk home.
Last week, the family of Zoe Murphy said the response to their appeal to raise €100,000 for her spinal operation had been ‘unbelievable’.
Her parents Lynda and Eamon said that they were were bowled over after already reaching the half-way mark towards their fundraising goal.
Some money has been raised through cash donations – leading the family to believe that burglars are now trying to steal it.
Zoe was born with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and will struggle to walk unless she undergoes surgery in the US.
The specialised procedure is called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy and it will be performed at Saint Louis Children’s Hospital, Missouri by paediatric neurosurgeon Dr TS Park. However, Zoe’s father Eamon said the family now feels ‘paranoid’ about the attempted break-ins.
‘We can’t say for definite but it’s very coincidental that twice in 10 days we have two guys attempting to get in,’ he said.
‘Our estate is very quiet and [there is] never any word of break-ins.
‘We have lived here for six years and have never heard of any trouble.’
Last week, he left to hand out buckets for a collection for his young daughter, who was at home with Lynda.
Fifteen minutes later, there was an attempted break-in.
‘Lynda was in the kitchen and two guys were getting in our sliding doors from the back garden. Lynda ran, grabbed Zoe and ran out the front door and the guys, we are assuming, hopped a wall,’ he said.
As a result the couple posted a message on Facebook that they wished ‘to hopefully stress to people that we have no access to any of Zoe’s funds and would never keep money in the house’.
Eamon added: ‘We have trustees that handle the funds and we do not have access to them, and won’t, until we are paying Dr Parks in America.’
‘We have no access to Zoe’s money’