Gill's Skin Cancer Story
“Before I went on foreign holidays, I would’ve done a few sunbeds to get a base tan because I thought it meant I wouldn’t get sunburnt when sunbathing abroad. But now I’m paying the price for it, and it certainly wasn’t worth it.”
Gill Costelloe, 45, was diagnosed with skin cancer in 2021, when it was discovered that she had a reoccurrence of melanoma that had spread. The Dublin woman was first diagnosed with skin cancer in 2016 after a friend noticed a mole on her back and advised her to get it checked out.
“I went to my GP, but I felt like it would be nothing major,” she says. “It turned out to be melanoma, but we caught it early and they removed the mole and surrounding skin, and I felt lucky. They said I’d be monitored for five years, and exactly five years later it came back with a vengeance.”
In 2021, Gill became concerned after she fainted two mornings in a row. After she ruled out Covid as a potential cause, she went to her GP. Her GP advised her to go to hospital, and it was discovered that her cancer had returned and had spread.
“In hindsight, I had slight symptoms, like being a little bit out of breath and having slightly darker stools than normal, but not anything very noticeable,” says Gill. “It’s scary, because you’re walking around, feeling fine, but the doctor said that if I had waited a few more days I could’ve died.”
After she received the news that her cancer had spread, Gill visited the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Centre in St Vincent’s University Hospital. She spoke to a nurse who answered all her questions, and she felt really supported.
“I popped into the Daffodil Centre in Vincent’s when I was first diagnosed. I had a chat with one of the nurses there, and she was lovely. She answered all of the questions I had. When you’re first diagnosed, you don’t have the time to go through your questions with your consultant, but the nurse in the Daffodil Centre had plenty of time for me.”
Three months of in-patient treatment in St Vincent’s University Hospital followed Gill’s diagnosis. She was initially put on a clinical trial and would recommend the experience to anyone going through cancer treatment if the opportunity arises.
“I was very familiar with the value and power of health research through my previous job with Sport Ireland, particularly having worked in drug testing – so I was naturally very supportive of research,” she says. “I didn’t hesitate when the doctor suggested the trial as an option.
“However, after a few weeks my doctor felt the trial was not shrinking my tumours quickly enough, so I came off the trial and onto a targeted therapy of chemo in tablet form, which I’ve been on ever since.
“While I was on the trial, I was very closely monitored by the oncology team and that higher level of care I received was really reassuring. I knew that the trial had been very successful for other patients that had been on it before me and although it didn't work for me, the team moved very quickly to change me over to a different type of treatment that did work.”
Gill’s condition has since improved, and she has returned to her job in the National Shared Services Office. She is sharing her story to encourage people to wear sunscreen and to get any skin changes checked. She continues to live with the effects of having had skin cancer.
"I was an avid cyclist and never once considered the damage I was doing to my body being out on the bike for hours on end with no sunscreen. Now I’m afraid to get back on the bike in case I have a crash and end up in a wheelchair, as I have cancer in my hip bone. It kills me that I can no longer do what I love."
“I do still go out and enjoy myself when it’s sunny, but I wear a hat and cover up. I wear SPF every day now, even when it’s cloudy. There are some great fake tans available now too, which I love.”
Gill adds: “People think that skin cancer isn’t serious. Melanoma, even when it’s surgically removed from the skin, can come back and spread to other parts of your body. Mine was caught early but still spread to my liver, my lung, my breast, my stomach, my abdominal cavity and my hip bone. I nearly died and spent three months in hospital. I’m very, very lucky to be here today to tell my story.”
Gill had her first clear scan before Christmas and is doing well. She is continuing to take a tablet-based chemotherapy, and one of the lasting effects of her diagnoses is that she always worries about her cancer coming back.
“I’m still living from scan to scan, and I will always have that fear of it coming back again. It’s so hard to plan for the future when you don’t know if you are going to be here in five years’ time.”
However, Gill also feels strongly about the great strides made in cancer research and treatment, particularly in terms of her own prognosis.
"Yes, cancer is scary, but it’s not the death sentence it used to be – treatment and research are improving all the time. There is hope at the end of the day, and there are supports out there."
“When I found out my cancer had come back and had spread, Professor John Crown, my oncologist, told me that if we were having this conversation five or six years before, it would’ve been a much sadder one.”
