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“On cloud 9″: Ill mum’s joy after internet ‘brings Ireland’ to her

Members of an online community rallied around when one of them wanted to “bring Ireland” to his mum who has cancer.

ONLINE COMMUNITY REDDIT is known for having users with a talent for finding quirky videos and taking part in revealing anonymous interviews – but it more than proved its worth when one member made an appeal on behalf of his mum.

Reddit member Jay-Bob put out the appeal a month ago for his mother, who had recently been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer and was given just three months to live.

He wanted to do something to bring her joy but wasn’t able to travel home to the US as he is deployed in Afghanistan. He knew his grandparents had emigrated from Shannon, but it wasn’t until his mother broke down after hearing he stopped off at the town’s airport while on tour that he realised what to do:

I saw a charm at the airport with a real shamrock in glass that I was going to send her, for luck, something Irish after finding out how much it really means to her. But I thought it cheesy and shallow. I want something warm, something very Irish, something individual and sincere.
If I cant bring my mom to Ireland, to Shannon, how can I bring Ireland to her? What can I do?

What happened next would bring a tear to even the most jaded internet user’s eye: fellow Redditers responded, not just with positive comments, but with photos, a card, shamrock seeds, and a Mass being said for her in Dublin.

And there was even more great news to come:

My mother just went to her first scan after chemo. She has had considerable shrinkage in all of her tumors, some have even disappeared. Her blood markers for cancer went from over 5500 to under 250. Her initial prognosis of 3 months has been extended to well over a year. I call it the luck of the Irish. Between the folks in Ireland and the family back home, my mam has been on cloud 9.

Ah, internet. When you’re good, you really are very, very good.

Read: ‘Weed? I’d legalise immediately’: Anonymous Garda invites people to ‘ask me anything’>

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