{"id":458730,"date":"2026-04-29T00:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/458730\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T00:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T00:21:11","slug":"cork-girl-who-had-hundreds-of-seizures-a-day-diagnosed-with-rare-condition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/458730\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork girl who had ‘hundreds of seizures’ a day diagnosed with rare condition"},"content":{"rendered":"

A mum-of-two is using her art skills to team up and raise money for the vital charity<\/a> that helped her family during the ‘darkest time’ of their lives.<\/p>\n

Hannah McGrenera, who lives in Bishopstown, welcomed her second child in 2020, but says she instantly knew something wasn’t right with her newborn girl’s health. She told RSVP Live:<\/a> “Mila was born in Cork University Hospital<\/a>, and the night she came home, I knew something was wrong because she wasn’t feeding. We tried to rush her back to the A&E, and eventually, we finally got her into the ICU, where she stayed for a month.<\/p>\n

“Mila was having hundreds of seizures a day. She was also holding her breath, which made her turn purple and black. We just didn’t know what was wrong with her. After a month, they transferred her next door to the paediatric unit in the CUH, and we stayed there for a whole year.”<\/p>\n

After months of tests, doctors diagnosed Mila with KCNQ2 Encephalopathy, a rare genetic condition that causes severe epilepsy and developmental delays. She was discharged from the hospital after all options had been exhausted.<\/p>\n

“I remember thinking, how was I going to manage things by myself when there was a whole nursing team in the hospital. I was scared, defeated and totally hopeless; it was the darkest time of my life. I was completely exhausted, mentally and physically, but that’s when Jack and Jill stepped in,” Hannah said.<\/p>\n

Eil\u00edn N\u00ed Mhurch\u00fa, a liaison nurse manager from Jack and Jill, came to see Hannah and told her she would send some nurses to their house to help out. “It was as simple as that,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t have to fill out twenty pages of information telling her how sick Mila is; it was just so easy. The nurses started arriving at our home and providing care that was much needed. For two or three hours, they will peg-feed her and help keep her comfortable and happy. Their nursing hours vary from family to family. We had a lot more when she first came home, and then reduced when she got older and started school.”<\/p>\n

While the carers help out with her daughter, Hannah, who has her own award-winning jewellery business called Saw Framed, has been able to ‘find herself again’ through her artwork. Originally from Taiwan, Hannah has lived in Ireland for over 30 years and graduated from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2004, where she worked with large-scale sculptures before turning to jewellery and artwork.<\/p>\n

“I could escape to my art, even for a short time, without constant fear. I am more than just Mila’s carer. I am an artist. Knowing Mila is in safe hands gave me the confidence to embrace my creative side again.<\/p>\n

“We’re managing better now. Everyone asks me, ‘Is her condition better?’, but she’s still on all this medication, so nothing has changed. I think we just manage better. She finally got school transport, so she goes to St Paul’s Special School. Mila is fierce with a very witty sense of humour. She’s surrounded by so much love.”<\/p>\n

Without the help of Jack and Jill, life could be a lot different for Hannah and her family. “They helped piece my family back together and gave me the strength to hope again. We go to the beach. We go out and about whenever we can. Mila was born to live a life, no matter how short that life may be,” she explained. To show her support for the charity, Hannah is taking part in this year’s Incognito art sale.<\/p>\n

Now celebrating its tenth year, Incognito, founded by Lucinda Hall, is a unique art initiative that makes art accessible and affordable while raising vital funds for The Jack and Jill Children’s Foundation. Original artworks by emerging and internationally acclaimed artists will be sold for a fixed price of \u20ac75, with the artist’s identity revealed only after purchase. Over the past decade, it has raised \u20ac1.4 million, funding over 80,000 hours of in-home nursing and respite care, giving Jack and Jill families the invaluable gift of time.<\/p>\n

Some of the well-known names taking part in this year’s art sale are Don Conroy, William Costelloe, Mary Kennedy, Donal Skehan, Lyra, Jarlath Regan, Don O’Neill, Peter O’Brien, Simone Rocha, Helen Steele, Leah Hewson, Tom Climent, Martin Gale, Poppy Melia, Marcel Lindsay, Amy O’Riordan, Miriam Smithers, Susan Cairns and Ruthie Ashenhurst.<\/p>\n

The annual online art sale will take place on Wednesday, May 20. You can check out the collection by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A mum-of-two is using her art skills to team up and raise money for the vital charity that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":458731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[53205,18,117,107454,19,17,61109],"class_list":["post-458730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-charities","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-health-and-wellbeing","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-real-life"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116485140476352269","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=458730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/458730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/458731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=458730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=458730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=458730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}