'I hate being asked if I smoked'

MY HEALTH EXPERIENCE: MARION KEEGAN:I got lung cancer eight years after giving up smoking

I AM a survivor of lung cancer and have been for the past four years. Until I met two other people for a photocall in St Stephen’s Green, Dublin, three years ago, I had never met another lung cancer survivor.

The disease is serious, but I wish I had known that there were stories such as mine around when I was diagnosed in December 2006.

I had been feeling unwell for a while in a general way, but there was nothing specific. Then I got a persistent pain in my shoulder. It kept getting worse. It got to the stage where you could actually touch the pain.

I was out walking the dog one day and I got very, very short of breath, so I went to the GP and he sent me straight to St James’s Hospital. I was diagnosed with pneumonia and admitted. This was in late November 2006.

The doctors came around the next day and they said they had found a lesion on my lung and it would need to be investigated. They arranged for me to have a PET scan. I was terrified when I heard that as PET scans are usually carried out to detect hot spots for cancer.

Then I got a call from St James’s to ask would I go for a biopsy. I went for it and, while I was there, the biopsy caused the lung to collapse, so I had to stay in hospital for four extra days.

During those four days, the results of the biopsy came back – the doctor told me I had lung cancer. I felt like somebody had punched me in the stomach.

I knew there was something wrong with me. While part of me was shocked, part of me knew that I was ill and I was hopeful that I could be cured.

I was an ex-smoker of eight years at that stage. I used to smoke 20-25 Rothmans a day. I started when I was 19 when people thought it was glamorous to smoke. It was like the television series Mad Men in my day. Smoking was everywhere.

I gave them up because my husband, Noel, had given them up. We went on holidays and we were staying in a friend’s apartment in Galway. It was a brand new apartment and I didn’t want to smoke in it.

We went out for a meal one night and I was the only smoker. The couple we were with were saying that non-smokers got the nicer tables. The next day I got up and I didn’t smoke at all.

I gave them up for health reasons and because it was becoming a very unsocial thing to do. I thought that after giving up the cigarettes, I would be in the clear. I couldn’t believe it was lung cancer.

On December 19th, 2006, the surgeons at St James’s Hospital removed the upper lobe of my left lung. I had an adenoma type 1B lung cancer which, luckily for me, is at the very earliest stage. I have been told it is absolutely critical to get this cancer early.

Nevertheless, Christmas was cancelled for us. My family thought I wasn’t going to make it and my son Stephen cancelled his wedding.

I got an infection following the operation and I was in dreadful pain. I had to stay in hospital until January 20th. We only celebrated Christmas then. We had kept all the decorations up and the presents unopened.

I was devastated when I had to get four cycles of chemotherapy after leaving hospital. The last one was suspended because of the side effects. I had a blood clot and I had to inject for six months.

I also attended a pain clinic because I had a lot of pain in the scar area and in my back, but that has stopped now. All I take now is vitamin tablets; I have no medication at all.

I hate being asked if I smoked when I tell people I had lung cancer four years ago. That’s like saying that I had brought it on myself.

I know I’ve been lucky. Lung cancer is a particularly aggressive cancer. I hate going back to the hospital to see really sick people being diagnosed and told that they have cancer.

The lung cancer has never come back. I was in St James’s only last month and the oncologist said he was delighted with me, but you can never say I’m cured. He keeps telling me I’m in remission. The oncologist said I do not need to see him for another year. I also see the surgeon once a year.

I’m horrified to see young people smoking because we’re so much more educated now than we were when I started the habit.

I do not like to see people giving up smoking only to go back on them. They are going to have to go through the pains of withdrawal all over again. The first few days were so bad after I gave up that I owed it to myself never to start smoking again.

When I got out of hospital, the Irish Cancer Society got in touch with me and asked me to help out on its lung cancer awareness campaign by telling my story.

I told my story to an audience in the Shelbourne Hotel and also to one in the Royal College of Surgeons.

I met a few more survivors through the Irish Cancer Society at a photocall in January. I’d like to see a few more coming forward. We need to hear good stories about lung cancer survivors.

There are no ribbons to denote lung cancer like there are for breast cancer.

It is an invisible disease and patients get blamed for bringing it on themselves, but I gave up smoking in an attempt to be healthy. There are a lot of people who get lung cancer who quit smoking long before they are diagnosed.

I’ve changed in a way since my diagnosis. I really appreciate everything and everybody around me.

We had a very busy year last year. Stephen got married to Susan in July and my daughter, Jennifer, got married to Shane in November, and those were both happy occasions.

I feel fitter than ever and life is great. We have great holidays with the grandchildren, all seven of them. I cherish every day at the moment.

In conversation with RONAN MCGREEVY