On the 1st of October, Sharon and her friend Harry, set off on their travels across the globe, Dublin to Paris to Lima and back again, to raise vital funds for the Irish Cancer Society by completing the historic and world-famous Machu Picchu trek. They raised over €3,500 directly supporting the work of the Irish Cancer Society. For Sharon, it was an incredibly poignant time as she had planned to go a year earlier, but postponed her trip following the passing of her dad, Liam, who died from multiple myeloma – a bone marrow cancer.
“He got sick initially in 2016, so yeah, he had lived with his cancer diagnosis for over six years and it was incredibly challenging and full of ups and downs. I was living in Berlin at the time and came home to look after him as he underwent his first stem cell transplant. He got better and thankfully his cancer was kept at bay.”
Unfortunately, in November 2020, her dad’s cancer had returned. “I remember it specifically because it was just coming up to my 30th birthday party and he had kept it from me, until after the celebrations. At this point I’d moved back to Ireland permanently to be closer to him and to help my sister Alana, who was doing a fantastic job of supporting him the whole time. That was just in time for him to have his second transplant — this time with bone marrow, donated from his brother. At first things looked promising but as COVID hit, it was just one devastating blow after another, as it became clear that the transplant wasn’t working as expected.”
"He was first admitted to ICU in March 2022, and then twice more after that, but he always came back out again and we used to laugh when we got him home that he was like Lazarus — back from the dead!"
“As we moved into 2022, he was getting worse, but he was still up and down – I remember him just kind of not really seeming to accept just how sick he actually was. He was first admitted to ICU in March 2022, and then twice more after that, but he always came back out again and we used to laugh when we got him home that he was like Lazarus — back from the dead! He had a great sense of humour and it rubbed off on us.”
In August 2022, her dad was admitted once more to ICU and after a couple of weeks, there was nothing more that could be done. “We wanted to get him home and he wanted to spend his final days at home and that wouldn’t have been possible without the Irish Cancer Society’s night nurses. We ended up having them in for three nights and when you’re taking turns, me and siblings were looking after him, the respite offered by the night nurses is just indescribable. They’re there, of course, for practical medical support, but the mental and emotional reassurance of having them there in case he took a turn or something happened – they’re just amazing and we’re so grateful to them.”
"I can’t remember a time when the ‘C word’ hasn’t been a part of my life and I’ve always been aware of the great work done by the Irish Cancer Society and other organisations."
Sharon was planning a trek to Machu Picchu but postponed the trip following the passing of her dad, who died on 15 September 2022, just two weeks before she was scheduled to travel.
“Between my Grandad being in and out of St Lukes for years as a young child and then my schoolfriend being diagnosed with leukemia, I can’t remember a time when the ‘C word’ hasn’t been a part of my life and I’ve always been aware of the great work done by the Irish Cancer Society and other organisations. So for me, raising money or volunteering, it’s just been something we’ve always done and from a very early age, my dad instilled in me and my siblings that you give back and you try your best to help people who need help the most.”
“That’s why I was planning on doing the trek and I’m delighted a year after we originally intended to be able to do that. We know first-hand the what the Irish Cancer Society night nurses do, and how they allowed dad spend his final days at home surrounded by his loved ones. That meant everything to him and to be able to do something in return and raise a bit of money to give back to that amazing service, yeah, it was something I am delighted to do.”
While fit and into her running, Sharon concedes that in her preparation for the trek, she may have underestimated the challenge that lay ahead. “I didn’t expect it to be as physically draining as it was. I think the big surprise for us, and the hardest part was the altitude. We were up at 4am for a bit of breakfast, and then you’d head off for eight or nine hours of hiking. It was amazing though, such a great experience. I was part of a group of about 15 people. It was funny, because within the group, there were some doing it for sport but others doing it for charity to raise money – and you could tell the difference. It’s like there was more determination there for us to keep going because we knew we had such great support behind us and that people had generously donated for us to finish out the trek.”
While completing the trek, the guides would tell stories about different landmarks along the way and there were many stories about ancestors and the afterlife. “I have to say, obviously, I knew I would be thinking a lot about dad, but the stories about the afterlife and your ancestors staying with you, it felt like dad was with me – sometimes helping me along, sometimes laughing at me asking me what I had gotten myself in for! He used to always go on about this story of the monk who had to go over this mountain in his slippers—I don’t even know if this is like an actual myth or if he just made it up—and instead of complaining, he just said ‘I’ll get there one step at a time’. Whenever I was struggling on the trek, he was with me telling me one step at a time.”
