Sarah's story

Aged just 48 years old, Sarah’s mum Deirdre, who went by Dee, was diagnosed with lung cancer. “She hadn’t been herself for a good while” says Sarah. “She was very sick around Christmas 2018, and she was brought to Sligo Hospital with what ended up being gallstones. It was at this time the doctors noticed some shadowing on her scans and wanted to investigate further”.

Eventually, after a number of tests, it was by the August in 2019 that Sarah’s family received the news her mum had lung cancer and she was straight into treatment. « That was so difficult to come to terms with for us. There’s no real time to think after that, you’re just straight into treatment and trying to be there to support her through all of that ». Dee underwent surgery in August 2019 to remove what doctors could of her tumour and then she was into chemotherapy in Sligo before moving onto radiotherapy in Galway.

At this time, Sarah was just 22 years old, her older sister Carly was 24, while their younger brother, Kyle, was only 16. « Living in Bundoran, Co. Donegal meant that mum needed to avail of the bus service ran by Cancer Care West to get to and from her appointments in Galway. We’re also enormously grateful that they were able to provide accommodation for the weeks she had to be in Galway for radiotherapy. After her treatment, her cancer was mostly gone but it was still active in a lymph node. At the time all they could do was monitor this and she was in in for regular scans every three months ».

By early 2021, however, Sarah’s mum had taken a turn. « With Covid and because of how vulnerable and at risk she was, she wasn’t getting to attend for her regular check ups and scans as frequently as she should have been. Then, kind of out of nowhere really, she just starting having these bad falls – she wasn’t collapsing but falling over and tripping a lot. She had been suffering more frequent headaches and eventually me and my siblings, we kind of had to push her to go back to her GP to get it checked out – she was a typical stubborn Donegal mammy like that ».

After presenting to her GP with the severe headache symptoms, Dee was referred for further tests and scans. « The scans showed that the cancer had spread and metastasised in her brain – that is why she was having all the falls, the doctors said this would have impacted her balance. From June 2021, she was in for more radiotherapy to try stop the spread in the brain, but we knew from that point on it was going to get fairly aggressive from there. It was in October 2021 I’d say when we realised she wasn’t getting any better as she hadn’t really recovered after treatment, she wasn’t herself anymore and yeah, it’s hard to describe what it’s like as three young siblings to be facing into losing your mum like that ».

« It was 21 March 2022 that we got the news that the treatment was unsuccessful and nothing further could be done and from then on, we got the palliative team in. I remember that because it was the day after my sister’s birthday and around Mother’s Day. Mum was always very clear that she didn’t want to die in a hospital – she wanted to be surrounded by family at home, but because of where we were in Bundoran in Co. Donegal, this was going to be really difficult. We had the amazing support of the Northwest Hospice for palliative care and they were in to monitor and look after mum during the day. I think my mum actually ended up living a lot longer than the doctors thought, maybe it goes back to that stubbornness she had! »

« But as she got worse and the end was coming, we needed support at night time. The on-call doctor was based in Mountcharles and one night had to come to mum 3 or 4 times to administer medication to help with breakthrough symptoms, but each time we needed them it would take over an hour to get to here. It was Sharon actually in Northwest Hospice who pushed and got us the night nurse from the Irish Cancer Society ».

Georgina, one of the Irish Cancer Society’s night nurses in the North West region was on hand to support Dee in her final nights, ensuring she was able to spend her final moments at home surrounded by her children. « I remember the day she passed away as clear as anything. She passed on the Monday evening but Georgina knew it was coming and come the end of her shift on the Monday morning, she didn’t leave. She waited until 9am before finally leaving the house and I believe this was so we had someone to call when the time came. It really helped mum and our family having someone there to provide medical support and to make sure mum was comfortable. Georgina’s shift was from 11pm to 7am and I’ll never forget those extra 2 hours that she spent sat with us that morning. »

Sarah is sharing her story this Palliative Care Week to highlight the range of palliative care supports her mum availed of, including the Irish Cancer Society’s Night Nursing service. « For mum, we are just so grateful to all the medical team in Sligo, in Galway, at Cancer Care West, Northwest Hospice and last but certainly not least, the Irish Cancer Society night nurses who made mum’s wish of being at home surrounded by her family possible ».