There are great after-supports in Cork ARC, including group sessions on how to adapt to life after cancer. “Diagnosis and treatment are difficult, but the limbo when it is all over is challenging also. “Cork ARC were wonderful support and from the day I made the initial phone call to contact them until today, they have been brilliant,” says Cathy. Family, kindness of neighbours, friends and work colleagues, poetry writing and Zoom meetings with Enda all sustained me.” “My way of dealing with cancer was one foot in front of the other and one moment at a time during the treatment. “My whole cancer journey was ten months and I am grateful to be through it,” she says. Six weeks after surgery I had radiotherapy.” They were great books and inspired the poem Surrender that I wrote that morning. “On the day of my surgery, I took Enda Wyley’s book of poetry, The Painter On His Bike, and Helen Dunmore’s book Inside the Wave to read while I was waiting to be called to theatre. “I found both writing and reading poetry very therapeutic and when I was writing I was totally distracted from worries.” Enda’s encouragement kept me going when I would struggle with tiredness, side effects and low energy, she did all this voluntarily as she believed in the book writing project and wanted to support the work of Cork ARC. I worked with a poet, Enda Wyley, who mentored me while writing the book. “I also found writing poetry helped me through chemotherapy and the whole cancer journey. I found nature, especially the sea, very therapeutic. I used to make videos of the sound of the waves and play them during chemotherapy. The view of Ballycotton Island and the sound of the waves were so calming. To get through the discomforts of chemotherapy on Tuesdays, I used to drive to Garryvoe after my blood tests on Mondays for a walk with my sister-in-law. “I went through five months of intensive chemotherapy and then had a break of six weeks before surgery. “Starting chemotherapy was scary,” she recalls. This was something I thought happened to other people!” I never expected to find a lump on my own breast. “For years, as a midwifery teacher, I was always teaching students and expectant new mothers the importance of breast check. I worked as the Director of the Centre of Midwifery Education in Cork University Maternity Hospital where one day I was planning and organising education and working with a team, and the next day I was grappling with the fact that I was now on sick leave with a serious illness. “Prior to my diagnosis, life was busy both at home and at work. “It’s not the type of news anyone wants to hear.” “Sharing my diagnosis with family was very difficult as I knew it would really worry them,” says Cathy. How did her family react to the devastating news?
“As I left CUH that day, I had a very definite plan of treatment and for the next few weeks it was a whirlwind of appointments for scans, tests, planning chemotherapy, etc.” Hearing words like Oncologist, chemotherapy and surgery was surreal. “I got the results on February 22 and when I got the diagnosis, it was a combination of shock and disbelief. Writing the poem was a form of distraction and passed the time for me,” says Cathy. “I wrote my first poem at that visit, as we all wore masks and were socially distanced in the waiting area, and there was no interaction with other women. I was seen in CUH the following week and had an examination by a consultant, a mammogram, an ultrasound and biopsies.”Ĭathy O'Sullivan with consultant Seamus O’Reilly. She confirmed that there was a lump and referred me urgently to Cork University Hospital. Despite the busyness of Covid, she gave me an appointment for 5pm that evening. “The following day, (Monday), I rang my GP at 9am. Ironically, I had just finished reading Keelin Shanley’s beautiful book, A Light That Never Goes Out, on the day I found the lump. “The following day was Sunday and I kept checking periodically and no matter how much I hoped that I had imagined it, there was definitely a lump there. I stood in front of the mirror and did another examination. I went upstairs, lay on the bed, and did a thorough examination.
“I found a lump on my breast on Saturday, January 30, 2021. Cathy recalls the day she found the lump on her breast.