Marcia de Miranda Faulkner first noticed a lump on her neck in January 2021.

“I didn’t have any other symptoms and I didn’t have pain anywhere but the lump kept growing and I knew there was something wrong,” says Marcia who lives in Stepaside, Dublin.

 

 

Her GP sent her for a scan, and when the results came back, he advised a biopsy. “It took a little while to get this biopsy done and I eventually had the biopsy at the beginning of June and by the middle of June, it was confirmed I had cancer,” says Marcia.

Around the same time, Marcia discovered a lump in her left breast. However, a breast biopsy did not match with the results of her neck lump biopsy. “I was told, ‘you have cancer somewhere else’. They didn’t know what the lump of my neck was but they were 99% sure they would find cancer on my ovaries, or my fallopian tubes or my womb,” recalls Marcia.

Further tests showed that Marcia had ovarian cancer as well as breast cancer. Before receiving this devastating news, Marcia had been busy planning her wedding.

“We were together for 11 years last year and we had set a date in August. I didn’t know if I felt like going on with the wedding because I didn’t want to delay any of my treatment. I said to the doctor that if this is going to be a problem, we will get married another time. However, the doctor said no, that they could work around it and that the wedding was going to be a good thing for me.

“In the middle of the pandemic and getting a cancer diagnosis, my husband’s family all got together and organised everything. There were only 20 people in my husband’s aunt’s back garden and it was just amazing. You could feel so much love and everybody was crying.”

 

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"If you feel there’s something wrong, and I’m telling this to everybody, go forward and get it investigated."

Marcia de Miranda Faulkner 2

Just 15 days after the wedding, Marcia had surgery to remove her ovaries and her fallopian tubes. The surgery was successful and in October she started a treatment plan of six sessions of chemotherapy for her breast tumour.

“I can remember sitting on my couch one day thinking, what’s going on? I wasn’t asking ‘why me?’  I thought I was strong enough to face it but what could I do to get through this as easily as possible,” she recalls. “I decided I was going to do something in the oncology department to make people laugh.”

For her very first chemotherapy session, she got dressed up in a costume and distributed lollipops.

“The response was great,” she says. “It got people talking and created good vibes and then when I was called for my treatment, everybody was looking at me in surprise and I said, ‘Yes, I am one of you’. The doctor asked what was going on and I told him I am trying to make people smile. He looked at me, with flowers on my head, and he said ‘Do you know Marcia, this is really good’.”

She continued to dress up for the rest of her sessions in different costumes and slogan t-shirts, handing out cookies and cards to help raise spirits in the oncology department. “It was a way I could transform my pain and helped me to get through this because I wasn’t thinking about me. I was focused on other people’s pain,” she says.

Marcia has now finished her chemotherapy, and she will be continue her treatment with radiotherapy sessions.

Her message to anyone who has concerns is to go and get checked out. “If you feel there’s something wrong, and I’m telling this to everybody, go forward and get it investigated,” she says. “I knew something was wrong and after my biopsy was delayed, I kept fighting to get it done soon as possible. When you have this kind of disease, every single minute is important.”

 

 

 

 

Contact the Irish Cancer Society Support Line

If you have worries or concerns about cancer, you can speak confidentially to an Irish Cancer Society Cancer Nurse through the Freephone Support Line on 1800 200 700.

Monday to Friday, 9.00am - 5.00pm

Roz, Cancer Nurseline

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