Selfless six-year-old raises thousands for children’s charity

A SELFLESS six-year-old girl from Strabane has raised an astounding £2,600 for a children’s charity.

Dynamic Dani-Jay Friel decided to embark on the philanthropic mission after she herself spent an extended period of time in the Royal Belfast Hospital for Sick Children.

This week, Dani-Jay’s mum, Gemma explained the inspiration behind the fundraising.

“Ever since she was about six weeks old, we started to notice problems with Dani, but it was nine months when things really started to kick off,” said Gemma.

“Between hospitals in Liverpool and Belfast, it came down to Dani having an abnormally large intestine.”

After a long process of different treatments, Dani-Jay had to undergo an ileostomy, which is an operation that brings the end of the small bowel through an opening in the stomach to form a stoma.

Through her time in the children’s ward, Dani-Jay became inspired to raise money for the other sick children in the hospital, especially after seeing a poster for ‘Helping Hands’, which is an independent charity with the aim of aiding the children under the hospital’s care. The charity was set up in 1997 by the medical staff at the hospital and in recent times has played a pivotal role in providing equipment, research and education for the staff, children, and parents in the ward.

For her part, Dani-Jay set out with sponsor sheets and rounded up funds from friends and family, even contributing £100 of her own birthday money.

“I am super proud of my little girl,” Gemma beamed. “She wanted to give the girls and boys some new toys and stuff to make them happy and feel at home when they were on the ward. She set her mind to it and raised a wonderful £2,600 which she then handed to Nigel from Helping Hands with the biggest smile on her face.”

Gemma continued, “Dani-Jay, for everything she’s been though, she always thinks of others around her and is so kind hearted; she’s always smiling! Dani-Jay wants to thank everyone who made a donation and that they will make the girls and boys very happy with their new toys.”

The fundraising campaign isn’t over yet for Dani however, as she now plans for a summer beach walk to raise more money for charity.

For her part, Dani is now fully recovered and is learning to live with her stoma bag.