Just eight months after her 13-year-old daughter, Sinéad, was diagnosed with leukemia, Margaret Walsh from Co. Mayo received her own breast cancer diagnosis.

The Walsh family are urging communities from every county in Ireland to turn daffodil yellow on Daffodil Day March 22nd and go all in to raise vital funds and give hope to cancer patients.

“Sinéad was complaining of a sore arm, but she had recently gotten the HPV vaccine, so I thought maybe it was that. A few days later it still hurt, so I brought her to A and E in Castlebar, where the doctor told me it was muscular and wanted to send us home. I refused to leave until they did some blood tests. They told us it would take a day or so to process the results, but we were only home 15 minutes and they rang telling us to come back, that Sinead’s bloods were all over the place. 

I remember asking ‘Is it leukemia? Sinéad's Grandad Pat (RIP) had been diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008 and suddenly they were using all the same phrases as when he was diagnosed but the medical team assured me it was just an infection in her blood, so she was given antibiotics and sent home.

In June, Sinéad began complaining of a sore knee, I called our GP, who referred her to University Hospital Galway. They monitored her for a week then sent us home. The following week she woke crying with severe pain in her spine. I packed two bags and headed to Galway again. 

Two days later, on a Friday afternoon, I was sitting in a conference room in University Hospital Galway, with a box of tissues being placed in front of me as they broke the news that Sinéad had leukemia. Hearing that was pure devastation but I didn’t cry.  I knew they were looking at me and I told them you are only telling me what I had asked in Castlebar three weeks ago. I’m a practical person and with great support from family and friends I quickly went into planning mode and focused on getting Sinéad better. I had to ring Brendan and break the news to him and then figure out how we were going to tell her brother and sisters. 

Sinéad’s journey started the next day.  We were told to be in St. Johns Ward in Crumlin on Sunday evening.  Brendan and I held Sinead between us as we walked down the long corridor to the double doors.  It was longer than any marathon.   

After she started chemotherapy they discovered the treatment had triggered diabetes. This was the straw that broke the camels back for me. It was never ending.  My husband Brendan took over the responsibility of dealing with the diabetes on a daily basis, monitoring her blood sugar levels and planning her foods and insulin.   I just couldn’t.

Sinéad developed jaundice, sepsis and an infection in her spine and spent 4 nights in ICU. This was horrendous for Sinéad as I could only stay with her for the first night in ICU, then she was alone at night and she really, really struggled with that. After ICU, they stopped the chemotherapy, as it was too much for her body. Thankfully her team forwarded a report to HSE requesting access to an immunotherapy drug called blinatumomab. 

It was approved and several days later her pump was attached and her immunotherapy began. We couldn’t believe it- the following Monday she was able to get out of bed, albeit very weak, and cracked a joke. The difference in a few days was unbelievable, our child was back.

The doctors told us she would likely miss a year of school and would need a wheelchair. Sinéad who was set to start 2nd year in September was devastated that she was going to be missing school and not continuing together with her friends through 2nd year. However she was determined and come September she got on the school bus with her rucksack on her back, her immunotherapy in one side and her antibiotics in the other, under the watchful eye of the school bus driver, Vincent.

After the immunotherapy she went back onto chemotherapy, some of which I was trained to administer at home and her last day of treatment was on Christmas day. 

inéad is doing well now, she is undergoing maintenance treatment and her team are really happy with her. Her diabetes disappeared, thank God and at long last she is off the antibiotics. 

Sinéad has had an MRI on her spine and the results are positive. She’s on chemotherapy at home every day. I take her bloods once a week and bring them to Castlebar hospital for testing and every 12 weeks she gets a lumbar puncture to get medication to protect her brain. She participated in her football team’s warm up at the U15 All-Ireland Féile recently which Hollymount won and that was a huge moment for us!  The support we have received from her team and club has been phenomenal.  GO HOLLY!!!! 

We went on a family holiday last June on a European cruise. I couldn’t believe it, a year ago they told us she would be in a wheelchair and instead she was boogie boarding on the ship. And I thought “that’s two fingers up to cancer right there.”

Throughout Sinéad’s diagnosis the Walsh family availed of the Irish Cancer Society's Children’s fund, a special grant that provides €3000 to any family going through a childhood cancer diagnosis.

“The support from the Irish Cancer Society was so helpful.  My husband took carers leave and we spent most of last summer in Crumlin.  After she was discharged we were travelling up to Dublin for treatment twice a week, and into Castlebar two to three times a week.  We have 3 other children, two of which are in college, so the funding was great. We went to Irish Cancer Society activity camps in Barretstown too, which was lovely, it was great to have time where we didn’t have to think about anything, everything was organized for us. We’d like to go again now that she is much stronger.”

Speaking about her own cancer diagnosis, Margaret says.

Margaret works as a Garda.

“My work colleagues have been a huge source of support to my family and I. They were there to help at every turn.   I have recently completed two college courses- a Bachelor of Arts in Policing & Administration of Justice and a Diploma in Court Presenting.  I’ve just been promoted too, which has been a nice boost. I feel like something positive has come at last.”

Our family has been through so much in the last fourteen months but we know we have so much support beside us and behind us from our families, friends, neighbours, colleagues, school and organisations.  It has made our journey that much easier and has allowed us to focus on Sinéad and her siblings, Joseph, Ciara and Sarah. 

The Irish Cancer Society have been there at every step both in Crumlin and since we got home making sure that we have every support, emotionally and financially.  We wouldn’t be able to be where we are without them.  Our family are so grateful for all the help given to us by the Irish Cancer Society which has allowed us to concentrate on our family. We took on a Shave or Dye fundraiser for the Society in 2022, and hit 21,000 euro raised on Christmas Day! 

There is one phrase I use every day and that’s what I will finish this  on.

If you don’t laugh you will cry   

Find the positive in every day