Dylan and Romy raise £4,000 despite cancer and the pandemic

A global pandemic and serious medical treatment prevented cousins Romy McGowan and Dylan O’Flynn from spending much time together.

But despite having to rely on FaceTime to do most of their talking, their friendship has blossomed beautifully thanks to mutual admiration, support and a whole lot of love.

Dylan, from Cardiff. was first diagnosed with stage 4 B-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma when he was just six-years-old.

He underwent treatment for more than three years and could not see his friends or much of his family when the pandemic arrived as he was forced to shield for a year.

Dylan did return to school last May but within five months he was diagnosed with a virus that left him paralysed from the waist down and blind in one eye.

During all the years of hospital stays, Romy looked up to her older cousin while admiring his courage at facing so many challenges.

And so when Dylan decided to fundraise for The Little Princess Trust to help other children with cancer, Romy naturally asked if she could join him and grow her hair too.

The cousins have now not only donated their gorgeous long locks to us but also raised a staggering £4,000, too!

This huge sum of money will not only help us provide real-hair wigs to young people but will ensure we can continue to fund research searching for kinder and more effective treatments for childhood cancers.

Dylan’s mum Siobhan said: “Romy has only had tiny glimpses of time where her cousin hasn’t been receiving serious medical treatment and intervention; she was 22 months old when Dylan was diagnosed with cancer and six-years-old when he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis.

“Throughout it all, she’s never stopped looking up to him with love and admiration.

“I can’t think of a better duo to raise funds in such a wonderful way and for such a truly worthy cause.”

Words cannot begin to describe how grateful we all are at LPT to know that these two inspirational children chose to support our charity.

To read more about Dylan and Transverse Myelitis, you can see their JustGiving Page and the Instagram page of Dylan's mum @the_tightrope_walker