Large crowds have taken part in a march seeking justice for Harvey Sherratt Morrison who waited years for essential scoliosis treatment before passing away last month – and urging that action be taken for all the other children currently waiting excessively for access to healthcare.
Marchers gathered at the Garden of Remembrance before taking to O’Connell Street with posters saying Justice for Harvey and ‘no child should have to suffer’. Many speakers at Custom House Quay called for an Tánaiste Simon Harris, who – when serving as Minister for Health in 2017 – had promised that no child with scoliosis would be left waiting for more than 4 months for surgery.
Ahead of the march, Harvey’s mother said that those attending were standing “for Harvey, for all the other kids waiting and for your own children. Nobody expects to have a child that depends on the health system in such a substantial way but it could be any one of us and it can come at any given time.
“If we have been taught anything by Harvey’s passing it’s that you never know what is lurking around the corner. We went from planning a family holiday, to planning a funeral within a matter of days.”
In a passionate plea for children with scoliosis, Harvey’s parents said that his life was “painfully short” but that he asked for nothing, but simply needed “timely access to healthcare” – and that despite “begging for help”, their little boy did not get the care he needed. They said that Children’s Health Ireland was failing to meet children’s basic needs.
Harvey waited seven years for his spinal surgery, including 33 months on and off an active waiting list, despite the revelation by his parents that the little boy’s ribcage was so twisted by scoliosis that pressure was being put on his heart and lungs.
In August 2024, Harvey’s mother discovered that despite their public campaign her little boy whose condition was steadily deteriorating, was no longer on CHI’s active surgery waiting list.
By the time Harvey eventually had spinal surgery in December 2024, his parents say his spinal curve was so extended it could not be fully corrected.
“Harvey was nine,” his mother said. “We had to watch him deteriorate, cry in pain, struggle to breathe, and lose the sparkle in his eye over those 33 months” his mother Gillian Sherratt said today. “It robbed him of his childhood.”
Advocates for children and better care who helped to organise the march welcomed the large turnout, with one remarking: “I’ve never seen such a crowd for a disability justice demonstration! One with a beautiful boy who was failed by the state at the very centre of it.”
Long-time disability advocates attended the march hoping for change – with well-known campaigners Michael and Conor O’Dwod posting: “At the protest today for Harvey. One of the most poignant banners read simply’ I was only a child’.”
There were passionate pleas for better care for children with scoliosis and disabilities, including this poem saying that Harvey loss was mourned and the neglect of children was the country’s shame as parents were forced to fight for basic rights.
Others who could not make the march, posted heartfelt pleas for improvement in care: “I march in heart, I stand right here. For Harvey’s name, for truth, for care, No child should suffer such despair.”
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