“I was totally shocked when I was first diagnosed as I used to self-examine regularly. The tumour was just so tiny and at the base of my breast, so I just didn’t notice it.

 I had been experiencing extreme fatigue but I had put it down to perimenopause, cancer certainly never crossed my mind. My father also had Alzheimer’s and his condition was deteriorating dramatically, so I was totally pre-occupied.” Deirdre, who worked as a legal secretary for thirty years says.

“After the diagnosis, a friend of mine who had gone through her own cancer diagnosis, gave me some advice. She said number one, trust oncology and number two, do what you are told. That is what I did, l I finished breast cancer treatment in November 2018. ” Deirdre recalls.

However three months later in February 2019, Deirdre received some more difficult news. She had begun developing pains in her stomach, Deirdre says ‘it felt like my stomach was full of cut glass’. Deirdre also began noticing some blood in her stool. Following a colonoscopy carried out a month beforehand, Deirdre was told that a biopsy of a polyp that had been found during the procedure had come back as malignant. Deirdre was then diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.
 

A month later Deirdre had a major surgery to remove five inches of her colon and six lymph nodes. In June, Deirdre began twelve more cycles of chemotherapy. Overall her treatment went well and by December was doing much better. Deirdre was told she would need scans every three months that would then change to every six months.
At a scan in June 2020 however, Deirdre was told that a malignant tumour had been found on her right ovary and in June she had another major surgery to remove her ovary and both of her fallopian tubes.

Then in April 2021, Deirdre’s CT scan showed that unfortunately the colon cancer had returned. Deirdre was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer which had spread to her lungs, liver and peritoneum.

“Unfortunately it was a terminal diagnosis, but fortunately they said it was treatable and manageable.” She says.

Deirdre began another twelve cycles of chemotherapy in August 2021 which finished up in February of this year. Deirdre’s scan results showed that the majority of her tumours responded extremely well to her treatment and a number had shrunk considerably. 
Throughout her treatment, Deirdre availed of the Irish Cancer Society Volunteer Driver service “I live on my own, I drive but I didn’t own a car. My oncology nurse at the hospital let me know about the Irish Cancer Society Volunteer Driver service. I would have to take so many buses and spend so much time walking without the service. I also get so exhausted after chemotherapy, I really appreciated being picked up and dropped off. It is absolutely invaluable. I think I have used the service about 130 times over the years. Never once have I been let down.”

Deirdre mentions some advice she would give following her own experience “Looking back, I feel I should have gone to my GP sooner than I did. It is so important not to ignore symptoms, the sooner you get seen to, the better the outcome. I also think it is so vital to go to your Bowel Screen and Breast Check appointment.

I have had about nine month’s cancer free over the past few years. Life throws you curve balls, this is my curve ball to deal with. My advice to others is to take each day as it comes. Things I would have thought were important before, I realised really aren’t important at all. I try not to look ahead too far, it is difficult to make plans, and so I just try to enjoy each day as best I can.”