Profile: Frank's story

Frank Cox from Kimmage was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007

"Throughout the winter of 2006 and 2007, I got one chest infection after the other. It would clear up for a short time with antibiotics but it kept coming back. In June 2007, my GP was on holidays and the lady doctor covering for him was concerned that I’d had so many chest infections. She sent me for a chest X-ray but nothing showed up.

"That July I was on holidays in Wexford playing golf with my two brothers-in-law. About six holes into the game I couldn’t breathe and just about made it back to my car. I went straight to a local GP who thought I had asthma but I just knew it was something more serious. We came back from holidays early and I went for another chest X-ray. A few days later my GP told me that I had a shadow in my lung and that it didn’t look great. He arranged for me to see a specialist in St James’s Hospital, Dublin.

"That evening, Dr Finbarr O’Connell, the consultant respiratory physician in St James’s, rang and asked me to come in and see him the following morning. I had a CT scan and a bronchoscopy which is a test that uses a long tube with a camera at one end to look at the tissues in your lung.

"When I was told that I had lung cancer, I got an awful shock. I kept thinking about my own father who had died from lung cancer at the age of 66, the same age as I was. But the doctors assured me that treatment had come a long way since then and that there was every chance they would be able to treat me successfully.

"On September 13 that year, I had surgery to remove a part of my lung. I had a rough time afterwards because I got an infection but my family and friends were an amazing support. In particular, I don’t know what I would have done without my wife, Helen.

"And the care I received in St James’s was wonderful. In November I stared chemotherapy treatment and that lasted until January. The thing I remember most about that time is feeling very tired. When I finished chemo, I was a bit down in myself but I had a session of counselling through ARC Cancer Support and this made me feel better about things. For about a year afterwards, my breathing wasn’t great while my lungs adjusted but now it is not an issue at all.

"Being diagnosed with lung cancer is not a death sentence. There’s so much that can be done, and there is life after cancer. If you’re not feeling very well, do something about it. Talk to your doctor. There is every chance that if you get there early enough, something can be done."

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