Living with and beyond cancer: Survivors tell their stories

Post-traumatic stress, infertility and chronic fatigue are just some of the issues faced by cancer survivors, according to those attending a survivors’ conference in Dublin.

Lyndsey Connolly of Blessington, Co Wicklow, was just 25 when diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, a form of cancer of the blood. She survived the debilitating chemotherapy, convinced by her own self-belief and by her doctors’ assurances that she would survive, but she is still learning to live with the aftermath.

Sitting on the terrace of the Aviva Stadium at the Irish Cancer Society’s National Conference for Cancer Survivors, she talks candidly about realising she “has been through hell” and accepting that what she is feeling now is post traumatic stress syndrome.

Practical repercussions

She is unsure if she would be able to endure similar treatment if she were to become ill again. There are practical repercussions too.

She has nerve damage, there is ongoing pain. Then there is the infertility. Ms Connolly had her eggs harvested before treatment so its technically possible to bear children - but there is likely to be a high risk the baby would be lost.

She is unsure if she has the stamina for that.

Paradoxically, as she speaks she looks a picture of health - and this is another aspect of being a cancer survivor that survivors must deal with. “After you survive, people think you must be feeling great,” she says, before explaining that for many cancer survivors the real battle is coming to terms with the consequences of the illness rather than the illness itself.

For Gerard Ingoldsby (52), from Cork, the overwhelming feeling when he got the diagnosis of bowel cancer was relief. After some ill-health, he felt at last he could be treated.

He was treated successfully, but it involved intensive radio and chemotherapy to reduce a tumour before a brief rest, surgery and more chemotherapy.

To say the process between January 2005 and April 2006 was intensive is an understatement. When he was “let out” at the end of it he felt he was “let out without an instruction manual”.

‘A very dark place’

He suffered from anxiety and post traumatic stress and felt weighed down “in a very dark place”, a feeling he says was not depression.

An oncology nurse recommended Cork Arc Cancer Support and going along was he says “the best thing I ever did”. At the centre, survivors - and others - can avail of massage, tai chi, and relaxation therapy. He suffer chronic fatigue, and life and work will never be the same again.

However, with the support of the centre he says he has come to see getting cancer as not “bad”, but part of his life’s path. “Bad is how we see those experiences whose part in our growth we do not yet understand,” he says.

Cancer has ensured his life would never be the same but his life’s path has made him who he is, so he has little option but to accept it and “learn to manage, learn how to deal with it”.

John McCormack, chief executive of the Irish Cancer Society, said more people are now surviving cancer than just 20 years ago, and about 120,000 people in Ireland are currently “living with and beyond cancer”.

Dr Paul D’Alton, a clinical psychologist and psycho-oncologist at St Vincent’s University Hospital Dublin, said a new cancer strategy due next year would have to include psychological counselling “or we are not providing proper cancer care”.

12 ways to reduce your cancer risk *

1. Do not smoke. One in three of all cancers relates to smoking.

2. Avoid second hand smoke. Second hand smoke increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease

3. Be a healthy weight. The amount of fat in the body affects the chance of developing some cancers.

4 Be physically active. Aim for 30 minutes of moderate activity each day.

5. Have a healthy diet. Eat fruit, vegetables and pulses.

6. Avoid alcohol. Drinking alcohol can cause at least seven types of cancer.

7. Avoid too much sun. Skin cancer is Ireland’s most common cancer.

8. Pollutants. Protect yourself in the workplace.

9. Radiation. Check radon levels in your home. See epa.ie.

10. Advice for women. Breastfeeding reduces the risk of cancer.

11. Get Vaccinations. Some cancers are spread by viruses and bacteria.

12. Get screened for cancer.

* Source: Irish Cancer Society, based on the European Code Against Cancer.