THE worst vigils always seemed to be at night, the child's life hanging by a thread. For John and Maire McConvilles the first was in Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, Drogheda, where their son Noel was admitted with septicaemia.
"We were told that he might not survive the night," says his father John. Months earlier, Noel had gone "from being a happy, energetic nine year old to a moody, listless child".
The crisis came when his parents couldn't wake him up. Noel survived that night but the next morning they were told he might have leukemia. Within days he was in the care of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin.
"I will never forget that long corridor from the main entrance to that smiling clown's face on the doors of the oncology unit, St John's Ward, at the back of the hospital," John recalls. They were told that between septicaemia and leukaemia, he would do well to survive the weekend.
Another night vigil began. "Ma ire and I waited outside the operating theatre in the dark. I thought it was one of the loneliest times of our lives. We talked, we cried and we prayed."
Noel survived the weekend to start a course of chemotherapy under Dr Ann O'Meara.
During the third course of chemotherapy, again it looked as if Noel was about to die. Dr Fin Breathnach, the children's cancer specialist who took over the case when Dr O'Meara left to do research, told the family that "his chances were slim and that his life was now in God's hands".
Another night vigil began as Dr Breathnach and his colleagues made a final effort to save Noel. "Our families had travelled to be with us that night and we all feared that Noel had lost his fight," John recalls. "We don't know how we got through that black night but with God's help we did and nobody knows how Noel survived that night either but he did."
Less than a month later, Noel returned home to Dundalk for the first time in four months.
He got through Christmas in relatively good form though constantly complaining of headaches. In January he slipped into what seemed like a coma. A rapid round of hospitals began: Drogheda, Crumlin, Beaumont, back to Crumlin.
His brain had, it seemed, been infected by the leukaemia. He later turned out to have a perforated intestine and was in a semi comatose state. Another dreadful night came. Almost everybody believed Noel would die except John who believed he would be all right.
Noel pulled through but a tough decision awaited that afternoon at a meeting with the surgeon, Mr Corbally, and Dr Bhreathnach. Noel might deteriorate again at any time, John was told. Many of those who cared for him thought he should not be put through more pain and suffering but the family's decision would be respected.
"It was one of the most difficult decisions of my life but I felt that if we gave up on Noel now that I would be letting a very brave boy down very badly," says John.
He was operated on the next day and survived. They brought him home again. He began to speak almost two weeks later.
They had come through the worst.
The North Eastern Health Board sent around a physiotherapist. "His name was Mr Shiu and he was originally from Hong Kong," says John. "It was nothing short of a miracle what he was able to do for Noel."
Soon Noel was able to go about with his friends in his wheelchair. "One day I looked out the window and saw Noel's wheelchair go past but Noel was not in it. Noel was pushing one of his friends along in the chair."
Says his father: "It is a tribute to Noel's spirit and determination and to those who helped him that he is now a fine, happy child who seems to have put all his problems, behind him and with God's help we hope never to go through a nightmare like that again.
Dr Breathnach says the type of leukaemia Noel suffered used to have a 20 per cent survival rate. "The last six or seven years has shown a dramatic improvement to about 60 or 70 per cent.
"Life is never the same again," he says of the effect on a family of being told their child has cancer. "Parents talk about the horror, the shattering of confidence."
On the positive side, more cancers are treated successfully, he says. "We can bring people back from situations now where 15 years ago we might not have been able to do it.