Little Olivia has successful gall bladder surgery

​Back in February, the Louth Leader spoke to the family of little Olivia Volley, from Marshchapel, who has been diagnosed with Sideroblastic anemia with B-cell immunodeficiency, periodic fevers, and developmental delay (SIFD), an autosomal recessive syndromic disorder of which there are just 20 current cases worldwide.

She will need a stem cell transplant, scheduled for August this year, which has a 50/50 chance of being successful, and if it works, Olivia will be able to lead a normal life and go to school and other activities like swimming like other youngsters.

Olivia had successful surgery last week to have her gallbladder removed and a biopsy on her liver

Because of the high risks to Olivia’s immune system, she will need to be in isolation at Newcastle Children’s Hospital for two months and have a course of chemotherapy to stop her immune system before the procedure.

After the transplant, she will need to be isolated again for another two months – a total of up to six months in hospital in Newcastle – but the risk to Olivia at recovery stage is very high, with just a 50 percent success rate.

Olivia, now almost three years old, is immuno-suppressed, which means her body does not create its own immune system, and she needs blood transfusions every three to four weeks as her bone marrow is not producing white and red blood cells properly.

Due to the risk and high dependency during the process, only one parent is able to be isolated with Olivia at a time, which has put a huge strain on the family as Sally also has older sons Harvey, 17 and Alfie, 16.