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I WAS DIAGNOSED with breast cancer in January 2011. I experienced pain in my right breast, so I went to the GP even though I thought that it was just a pulled muscle from lifting my little girl. The GP sent me to the breast care clinic where I had a mammogram. They did a biopsy and confirmed I had cancer.
It was a devastating shock to me. There was little time to let it sink in. As soon as I was diagnosed with cancer I was referred immediately for treatment. I had a mastectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and finally hormone treatment.
I have two small children, so my main concern was them. My little boy was nine at the time and my little girl was five. I had to pick a time that I was calm to talk to them about it – I didn’t want them to be frightened. I was sure to use the word cancer because I wanted them to know the name of the illness I had.
I explained to them that I would be getting treatment, but that it would make me better. I told them that I wouldn’t be around as much to play with them and that our routine and life would have to change as I would be getting help to get well again. I wanted to be honest with them, so I told them that I would lose my hair. I knew this might be frightening to them, as it was something I was not looking forward to myself. I wanted to tell them before I started to lose it so that they would be prepared.
When I did go bald they accepted it very well. My little boy was great. He looked after me and made sure all my needs were met. My little girl was also wonderful as she used to massage my head regularly. They both wore hats to support me, so it actually turned out to be a very positive thing for us as a family. My husband was tremendous. He took on all the parental roles as I just wasn’t physically able.
Following my treatment, people were coming up and telling me how well I looked. They would assume I was feeling much better and everyone was very optimistic and enthusiastic about how positively my treatment had gone.
However, I didn’t feel all that better. People seemed to think that once cancer survivors have gotten through treatment that they must feel well again, but it wasn’t like that for me. I felt about 60 per cent better, but I felt I had another 40 per cent to go. I was exhausted and I couldn’t understand why I was so tired. It upset me.
I was worried that this was how I might feel forever. I called into the Daffodil Centre and shared my feelings with the cancer survival services. The cancer information service nurse explained to me that it was completely normal to feel this way after treatment and she told me I wasn’t alone. I thought it was just me. I was very reassured to hear that I wouldn’t feel like this for the rest of my life and that I was normal.
She provided me with information about after care treatment and gave me some great books that were a real help to me. They weren’t long and complicated, but short and simple. During treatment I found my concentration very poor. I couldn’t read any books throughout the year. I found the pamphlets were very appropriate and to the point. They gave me the information I needed.
The nurse then referred me to the survivors’ support programme. It was the turning point for me – it was the best thing I could have done. I was put in touch with a woman my own age who had had a mastectomy. She had gone through the exact same treatment as me. Previous to this I had only been speaking to women that had a lumpectomy.
I can’t specify how important it is that people who have gone through cancer talk to people who have gone through the same treatment.
It was so helpful to hear that you are not the only one experiencing the same symptoms and feelings. We spoke for ages and I felt I could tell her everything. I told here about the exhaustion I was experiencing and she told me it took here a full two years to get over it. That was so reassuring to me. I felt I could stop feeling guilty about being tired all the time. I knew it was normal now.
The Daffodil Centre was somewhere safe for me at a time in my life where everything seemed up in the air. I could drop in at any time and get real answers from real people.
Apart from the illness, the diagnosis comes as a huge shock. There are practical questions you need answered. While you get all the medical jargon from your doctors, there are other questions that come to mind. It may sound stupid when you are dealing with a life-threatening disease, but questions like – how am I going to finance my treatment? Being diagnosed with cancer is something you are just thrown into. I was in work one day and diagnosed with a tumour the next, so it is not something you can plan for financially.
I had questions about whether I would lose my job, where could I get help, was I entitled to anything through social protection and how do I go about getting a wig? The Daffodil Centre had people on hand to answer all those practical questions about what would happen to the everyday aspects of my life.
When you have survived cancer you embrace every day and make the most of life. It will work out – that is my attitude now. I don’t worry half as much as I used to. I only worry if there is something serious to worry about. I am not wasting my energy worrying about the future anymore, I live everyday as it comes.
If someone is suffering from cancer I would tell them not to go through it alone. Call into your local Daffodil Centre or call the Irish Cancer Society. There is nothing like face to face contact with someone to reassure you that you can get through this.
Sheila Hyde lives in Cork and is a survivor of breast cancer. For more information please call the Irish Cancer Society on 1800 200 700. To get involved in Daffodil Day this year please call 1850 60 60 60.
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The only winners here will be the banks. I, like the rest of the country are on standby to bail them out again
@Caoimhín O Neill: The banks always win, never lose and will still take out of your pocket in a pandemic. The cycle never ends
@Caoimhín O Neill: 100% spot on Caoimhin. The paid bots on here shot me down numerous times when I said that after Hayes said the banks will help. They banks see this crisis as an opportunity to make massive money.
I would beg on the side of the road for money to pay my mortgage and bills before I would ask a bank for help.
@Caoimhín O Neill: there’ll be no bail out. It’s a bail in. Digi currency. Time limit on your money under the mattress or void.
@David Corrigan: I’m 37 got sick reasonly (self employed) and the government gave me not one cent the only people who helped were the banks you deferred my mortgage for 6 months,some relief.look just my little story
@thomas mitchell: I hope you are feeling better and doing well Thomas. Did the banks explain to you how much it will cost you for availing of that break though?
@Caoimhín O Neill: If 500000 people stay unemployed, there will be hardly anyone to bail out the banks
@Kevin Thompson: That’s when they go after a percentage of any savings in the country Kevin.
@David Corrigan: only if we let them.
@SJF: we will let them. Why wouldn’t we?
@David Corrigan: people will just take their money out of the bank, then there would be no cashflow
If we had government lead iniatives and public housing being built on a mass scale then the housing market wouldn’t be so volatile. Instead we are at the whim of speculators and developers.
Prices will go down,if the unemployed people stay unemployed, after 3 months, as they can’t afford the already inflated rent. The landlords will have to reduce rents or sell.If the banks don’t agree to extend their 3 month freeze on Mortgages, they will be left with a lot of properties, with no cash coming in via mortgages. The banks will have to reduce interest rates, as a smaller income is better than no income.they don’t want to be left with a load of houses that they can’t sell at market value. Vulture funds will no longer see property as a viable investment.the new development will at some stage be finished.Prices will come down.
@Kevin Thompson: You would think so but our present government support the huge rents. They are already pumping a billion a year into keeping rents inflated via various rent allowance payments. HAP’s started in 2014 and cost the taxpayer €0.5 million. In 2018 they had risen to €423 million. Last year it had jumped to €498 million. That is not all they spent last year. Add RAS (€95 million), Rent Supplement (€133 million) and SHCEP (€191 million). The total government spending on rent last year was €914 million. The government have consistently supported the rental sector. They won’t stop now.
@Niall Bourke: It’s a bad model to support rents, build more affordable houses, would be at a almost zero cost, (might have to initially borrow money and pay interest). They won’t have enough money to continuously support rent as that figure could Quadruple. Plus having to pay more Unemployment and less tax coming in.
@Kevin Thompson: You would think so Kevin but they will find it. Maybe another temporary tax would help. They could call it the Universal Rental Social Charge (URSC) for short.
@Niall Bourke: I think that there would be mass protests
@Niall Bourke: Imagine asking the Nurses and Doctors and other health care workers and frontline staff to pay an additional tax, when this is over
Feck, here is me thinking I could get a good deal when this is all over, our housing market is seriously f##ked up
@david hynes: don’t believe the hype, the estate agent would bite your hand off if you were to offer 20-30 thousand less than asking price
@Kevin Thompson: estate agents don’t own the properties.
@Da Vid: they will tell their clients to sell as they will not get any commission. they don’t want to spend too long on showing properties around and not to get income. Property won’t be a viable option for vulture funds as rent will go down.If there are no jobs to pay for the rent, people will move back to their parents, move abroad or rent will come down.
@Kevin Thompson: estate agent might but I as a potential seller wouldn’t. No way I’m selling my house for less than what I paid for it especially when I can just rent it out. People are still going to need housing after this and if anything the demand will go up due to the lack of houses being built now and before the covid crises. I wouldn’t be holding out for massive price drops like happened in the 2008 recession.
New home completions will fall sharply, because building is paused, supply chains are interrupted, & mortgages withheld.
The resale market will continue, as protected/ secure employments will get mortgage approvals,& prices will reflect availability. Scarcity may hold up prices until the flow of new homes comes back on stream.
The long term impact is that more of the population, those in less secure employments, which category is now expanded, will never get approvals.
The logic of this is that state public housing must be re-established as the primary housing provision for the bulk of the population. The current patchwork market system is inadequate, even with HAS, & will fail again, & again, leading to social unrest.
@William Kelly: Sense, in a Journal comment section? Truly these are the end times.
@William Kelly: State public housing for rent and affordable houses as affordable houses are at a net cost of zero
Why the obsession with property? Far more important things in the World right now. Literally life and death!
@Dave Thomas: if you manage to stay alive you’ll need somewhere to live. Not add to the 10k plus already homeless. What this Pandemic has shown is that if the Gov really wanted to, they could change that figure too.
@Da Vid: Dave, Do you own your property? If you are relying on a State pension when you retire, you won’t be able to support yourself. Either have somewhere to live and starve/freeze to death. Rents will come down, that will in turn cause house prices to go down too
@Dave Thomas: the Journal is owned by the same company that Owns Daft
It’s probably the best news source for the property market since they have direct access to the most data.
Well news source with the best access to the data, not necessarily the best at writing about it but anyway
@Dave Thomas: Do you own a property?
@Kevin Thompson: why will rents come down? No logic in that at all unless you see more properties coming available anytime soon? Those who still have jobs will pay the going rate, those who don’t will be assisted by government to pay the going rate. The fact less people will be eligible for mortgages means if anything more pressure on the rent sector which will drive up rents even more.
The Central Bank must now step up to the mark and help in this pandemic. What the Bank did duing the last crisis.should not be accepted this time.
@Locojoe: Ha ha good one, have you seen who’s back at the helm, bankers fanboys.
Get the builders back
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