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This story from book "The Martin O'Neill Story"
Buy it on Amazon
HE DREAMED the same dreams as his hero Martin O'Neill as he kicked a ball around the garden with his dad. But 10-year-old
Anthony Martin didn't live long enough to see his dream come true. In his short life, as he battled cancer, the youngster
showed the kind of courage and determination that puts football and all that surround it into perspective.
And his
bravery humbled the big Celtic soccer stars he adored when he walked onto the pitch with them at Derry Citys packed Brandywell
Stadium last year. Proudly wearing the Celtic away strip the youngster strode on as mascot to the team he longed to play for.
As striker Chris Sutton noticed the bandage on the boy's arm he asked him what was wrong, and was stunned by the
little boy's matter-of-fact reply.
Anthony's dad, Manus Martin, recalled: "Big Chris noticed the elastic bandage
on his arm and asked him if he had a sore arm. The wee lad replied, 'I have cancer', and 1 think Chris Sutton was completely
taken aback.
"He immediately asked him to come round to the dressing room after the game."
It
is recollections like those that will live in the hearts and minds of Anthony's grief-stricken parents Manus and Majella for
the rest of their lives. It is all they have left of the football daft boy who lived and breathed for the game. Anthony died
hours before Celtic clinched the league championship on April 7
Days after they buried their son, his mum and dad
find solace in the bedroom which is a shrine to his beloved Celtic and his TV hero Bart Simpson. Anthony's Celtic strips hang
from his wardrobe, next to his school ties and a signed Celtic ball. But even with the life size cartoons of Bart adorning
the wall, the room has a painful emptiness without Anthony. This is where he died in his father's arms, just 10 months after
leukaemia ravaged his little body and stole away his dreams of being a star footballer.
Tears roll down Manus's face
as he remembers how fit and healthy Anthony had been only last May.
He said: "The day before he took ill, Anthony
played in a football match with the local team he had been with since he was about six years old. Normally all the players
would only be on for a short time and would be substituted, but that day he played the whole game. When he came home he was
lying on couch and was completely exhausted."
"The next day he took ill in the car. He started to choke
and couldn't breathe. I took him to the health centre and we went straight to hospital. It turned out to be a tumour that
was pressing on his airways and that is why he couldn't breathe."
Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma was diagnosed the following
day, but as Majella said, she had a premonition the night before.
She said: "Manus stayed with him in hospital
and when he came home he said he was fine and that we would get the results of the tests the following day. I told Manus then
that 1 thought Anthony had cancer and 1 was worried sick. 1 just knew somehow that something was very wrong."
After
the cancer was diagnosed, doctors gave the family hope that with intensive chemotherapy there was a real chance that Anthony
would pull through.
Majella said: "We were absolutely shocked. He had been so fit and well. He was always
running around with a football at his feet from morning until dark. You would look out of the window and he was kicking the
ball for his dad to save. That's the way it was every day. Now we had to try and take in the news that he had cancer. The
doctors at the hospital were magnificent. The consultant sat down with me and Anthony and told him that he had cancer but
that we hoped he would get better. He took it really well. He seemed to know that he was seriously ill, but he was determined
that he would get better."
Two months later he was out of hospital and mid-way through his chemotherapy blocks.
The team he played for the in the quarter finals of a cup tie the night before he took ill had gone onto win the
championship, and Anthony was there to collect the honours.
In tears, Manus said: "I remember when the team
was going into the final they said to Anthony, 'We're going to win this for you,' and they did. I'll never forget seeing him
standing there that night. He pulled on a jersey and went up and got his medal. He was so pleased."
The treatment
had dissolved Anthony's tumour and the chemotherapy appeared to be working.
It was in October when Martin O'Neill
brought Celtic over for the friendly match to help turn around Derry City's finances, that Anthony was given the best night
of his life. His dad had asked Derry Cities commercial director Jim Roddy if Anthony could be a mascot for the historic night,
and Jim, aware of the boy's illness, immediately agreed.
Majella recalled: "We were so thrilled to get a ticket
at the last minute to see Anthony walking onto the pitch. He had a smile from one ear to the next. I've never seen him so
happy."
Manus said: "It was marvellous. 1 had taken Anthony to a match at Celtic park a few years ago and
he was thrilled by the whole occasion. When 1 saw him walking on with all the players that night I knew that this was the
happiest day of his entire life. Chris Sutton told him to come round to the dressing room after the match but it was too cold
and 1 wanted to get Anthony back home."
The night had made Anthony the happiest little boy in the world. The
leukaemia seemed to be under control and his family were looking forward to Anthony's final batch of chemotherapy. But just
three months later, he suffered a relapse. As he was about to begin his final block of chemotherapy, a lumber puncture test
showed that the cancer had spread through to his bone marrow and it was so virulent that the medication was not working.
From January, Anthony went downhill very quickly. But despite his failing health, he and the other cancer children at
the Royal Belfast Hospital's haematology unit in Belfast kept medical staff spirits up.
Manus said: "There were
another two boys from Derry in with cancer and Anthony and the others used to describe themselves as the wee sexy men from
Derry. That's what they became known as in the ward and everyone used to kid them. He would always say, 'Goodnight, God
bless ... 1 love you, best mammy in the world...' as his last words whenever we left him. No matter what we were talking
about, those were always his last words. Anthony showed amazing spirit. He used to tell us that we worried too much. He
was Celtic mad. We would be watching a match on television and 1 would be getting annoyed and would maybe even swear a bit.
Anthony knew that he wasn't to swear, but 1 allowed him to if he was watching a match. He used to say to me, 'Can 1 swear
now daddy?,' and we would laugh.
"When the doctors told us that there was nothing more they could do for Anthony
we knew the end would be fairly quick. After the initial shock we decided to make it the best we could for him for his remaining
time with us. There had been a plan for some time to take him to the Celtic v Dundee United game in March through the Belfast
charity Shine A Light, but when the time came he was too ill to go."
Majella and Manus, along with their daughter
Kate, nine, watched as Anthony lost his battle for life. He was sent home from hospital to be with his family for the final
days.
Majella said: "He was the most patient, understanding little boy anyone could ever imagine. He would
never complain about the cancer. Now and again he would ask for something to take the pain away, but he never asked to take
the cancer away. He use to apologise if he was too tired to talk to visitors. I sometimes thought that he knew deep down
that he was dying and 1 wondered if he understood it. The house was full of people coming to support us and visit the family
and 1 think Anthony must have known something. I remember one day just before he died, he called myself and Manus into the
room and put his arms around us. He said, 'I just wanted to give you a hug.' Manus thinks that he knew he was dying and
that he wanted to say goodbye to us."
Manus said: "I remember a couple of days before he died, his school
pals were in visiting him and he wanted to see them off. I got him ready and I was heartbroken as 1 saw him shuffling around
like an old man at 90. The cancer was right through his bones, but he wanted to wave his pals off He didn't want his pals
to see him like this. That was the kind of boy he was."
During the weeks before his death, Manus contacted
other cancer families on the internet, and messages of support as well as toys flooded in from all over the world. When the
end came, it was as Manus held Anthony in his arms, with Majella talking to him.
Majella said: "I had been told
by another family who had lost their child to cancer that 1 should speak to him, even if he appears to be lapsing in and out
of consciousness. I just spoke to him for about 25 minutes, telling him how much I loved him and how much we were all going
to miss him."
Manus said: "I held him in my arms until he stopped breathing."
It was the
Saturday morning hours before Celtic beat St. Mirren to crown them league champions. With tears blinding him, Manus dressed
his son in his Celtic shirt and lay him on the bed, surrounded by photographs of his Celtic heroes.
He said: "After
Celtic won the championship 1 went upstairs and told Anthony the news. I knew he would have been so happy if he had lived
to see it."
Jim Roddy of Derry City, who visited the family the following day, said: "When 1 went to the
house after Anthony died, Manus put his arms around me and cried. He said that I had given Anthony the best day of his life
by giving him the chance to be a mascot with Celtic that night.
"But it was Martin O'Neill who gave the wee
boy the best day of his life by bringing Celtic over here."
Just before the undertaker put the lid on Anthonys
coffin, his dad slipped a pair of trainers on him, "in case there was a football game up in heaven."
And
even at his funeral, Father Fintan Diggin spoke of Anthony's love of Celtic.
Manus said: "The priest said that
there was no way that Celtic could lose the championship in the match against St. Mirren because they had a 12th man on the
park that day.
"Every time 1 watch Celtic now 1 will be thinking of Anthony watching over them and willing them
on. He will always be their 12th man.
"I just wish he could be here to share it all with us."
The
children's haematology unit at the Royal Belfast Hospital is the only children's cancer unit in the whole of Northern Ireland.
All newly diagnosed children with cancer, whether it is from tumours or leukaemia are referred and undergo treatment
there.
The eight-bedded unit sees the 40 to 50 new child cancer cases from babies to 16 year olds that are diagnosed
in the province each year.
Much of the treatment, once they are diagnosed is outpatient chemotherapy.
Like
every hospital unit, much of the funding comes from charity some of it from grateful patients.
Manus and Majella
would like to see a room where people can have some privacy while they either wait for treatment or simply try to come to
terms with the sheer difficulties they are facing.
Cash is also needed for equipment as well as supporting educational
courses for staff, and the unit generally.
Dr McCarthy: "Anthony was a real character. He always had something
to say for himself
"He was really terribly unwell when he came to us last May with a very large lesion in his
chest which was causing breathing problems.
"Following treatment he responded very well which resolved a lot
of his symptoms, and then his real character came out.
"He was a Bart Simpson addict and everything he did revolved
around that.
"He was also Celtic mad and he used to show me pictures of all his heroes. He was really proud
of that day he led them onto the pitch at Brandywell as the Celtic mascot, and he had all the photographs to show off to people.
"He got an awful lot of strength from his parents. His mum and dad were great. They were an inspiration to
the unit whenever they came in, always getting involved with other families and full of joy and chat.
"Anthony
was almost stoic in everything we used to say to him.
He almost tried to obviously ignore what we were saying and
didn't appear to give the impression that he was listening. But in the same breath, his mother told me later, that he knew
well what was going on.
"He would know by the change in attitude of me and others unconsciously had towards
him. Most children aged as he was would be well aware that things are not going as well as they should be.
"Most
children don't really deal with death. It is something a long way away and they only deal with the here and now and Anthony
was very much like that.
"But when any child dies in the unit who you have watched for a long time people in
the unit are deeply affected by it. We deal with it in our own way.
"Some children you can get closer to than
others. Everyone was very fond of Anthony.
"His parents are finding it terribly difficult to cope. Anthony
was their shining star and he has now left. They have dedicated themselves to fund raising for the unit and that is very
laudable. A lot of parents get themselves involved in something so that they can live from day to day.
"The
idea of dedicating the book to Anthony lovely and 1 know that it will help them in their grief"
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