Living with cancer

Life with cancer


Anton McNulty

“CANCER is like climbing a ladder,” according to cancer surviver John Tiernan from Louisburgh. “You are all excited at the bottom but when you get to the middle you get scared you’ll fall and don’t want to go on.
“Rock Rose House are at the bottom with their hands out saying we won’t let you fall and encouraging you to keep going.”
In 1998, John was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and admitted that at the time he was very ignorant of cancer and felt that was the end of his world.
“You hear of someone who has cancer and you think that is it but that is totally untrue and wrong.
“When it hits you first it hits you like a sledgehammer and if you had anywhere to run or hide you certainly would. But then you realise you can’t and you have to face it.”
John had major surgery in Mayo General Hospital and chemotherapy in the Mater in Dublin. John’s treatment was before the Mayo Cancer Support Association was set-up and he had no support other than that of his family and friends. He admitted it was an awful time in his life and he often wondered if he would get through it.
“There were times when I felt like giving up and you are lying in bed at 3am and your whole world is tumbling down on top of you.
“Every negative thought in the world can hit you. You wonder if there is a hope for you at all.
“If Rock Rose House was there when I was going through my treatment it would have made life much easier for me.
“I was lucky in the support I got from my family and friends but if the service was there I could talk to someone. There was days I felt so low and depressed and I didn’t know other people were feeling the same,” he explained.
When Rock Rose House was set-up John decided to give something back and help other people and show them the light at the end of the tunnel.
One such person was Helen Rose from Westport who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and said she did not know what she would have done without Rock Rose House.
“It was the most frightening news I received and I thought it was the end of the world and I was dead and buried. Rock Rose House was fantastic and it was my stepping stone in life. When I went there I feft life in me and I was not alone.
Having support from people who had gone through it was better than having it from a doctor.
“I used Rock Rose House for three and a half years after the treatment and still use it. I would get up in the morning and go over there and it was that which got me out of bed in the morning.
Before I went, there was a lot of negative thoughts in my mind but I realised there was hope and life after cancer.”