Daffodil Diaries - Katy Morgan

“Go to your GP to get anything you’re worried about checked out, and if you’re not happy with it, get a second opinion – you know your own body.”

When Katy Morgan, 37, from Dundalk, Co Louth came home after walking the Camino in September 2024, she noticed a lump in the back of her throat.

“I thought it was maybe a seed or a tonsil stone,” she says. “I went to see my GP that October, and he said he couldn’t see anything, but I knew there was something there.

I went to another doctor for a second opinion, and he referred me to a specialist who I saw in March. I had tonsilitis, which was nothing to do with the lump, so the specialist took out my tonsils, and the lump, last April.

After the operation, Katy went on holiday to Spain so her appointment to receive her results were pushed back by a week.

Because I was on holidays, I pushed getting my results out by a week, but the doctor called me when I was in Spain and just said I needed to get a PET scan when I got back. I googled PET scans, and I realised they can be used to check for cancer. I was in a theme park in Salou about to get on a rollercoaster when I did that. I just stared at my feet the whole time I was on the rollercoaster.

Then I got a call from a liaison in the hospital, and when I asked why she was calling me she said she usually worked with people who had cancer. I realised they were setting up everything I needed, all the scans and treatment, while I was away but I didn’t have my diagnosis yet. I did cry that night, because I knew I had cancer, but I didn’t know the extent of it.

Shortly after Katy came home from Spain, she had an appointment with her doctor to find out the results of the tests that were done on the lump. She had already prepared herself for her diagnosis, as she had put the pieces together after receiving the calls from medical staff when she was away.

“When I got home and we went to get the results, I told the doctor, ‘I know I have cancer, can you just tell me how bad it is?’. He said it was a HPV cancer, but it hadn’t spread to my lymph nodes because it was caught so early.”

Last June, Katy had 35 sessions of radiotherapy across seven weeks, for five days a week.

“I totally lost my appetite, eating was painful and I had no sense of taste. But other than that, I got through it well.”

While going through treatment, Katy also had to deal with the financial cost of cancer. Travelling up and down from Louth to Dublin for seven weeks meant she had to spend at least €70 a week on tolls, but financial assistance from the Irish Cancer Society helped to ease the burden.

"I got a Travel2Care grant from the Irish Cancer Society to help me with the cost of travel to and from St Luke’s,” says Katy, who works as a self-employed dog groomer. “It was really helpful and took the sting out of the cost of the tolls."

Katy finished treatment in St Luke’s in early August, and last October she walked the Dublin Marathon with her brother to raise funds for the hospital – which they unexpectedly walked by on the marathon route.

I didn’t realise the marathon route passed St Luke’s until I was doing the marathon, so I got a photo at the gates that I had gone through every day for weeks when I was having treatment. We walked the marathon in under seven hours and raised almost €7,000 for St Luke’s.

The following November, Katy had her first post-treatment PET scan and was delighted to have been given the all clear.

“They’re confident the radiation got it all, and they don’t think it’s a type of cancer that will reoccur,” says Katy. “I feel like one of the lucky ones.”

Reflecting on her experience, Katy says she wishes the HPV vaccine had been available to her when she was growing up and she would encourage others to get it.

“I don’t think this would have happened to me if I’d had the HPV vaccine,” she says. “Most cancers caused by HPV are preventable if you get the vaccine.”

As for her advice to anyone who notices any lumps or changes in their body, Katy says it’s important to get them checked, and she also highlights the importance of engaging with cancer screening programmes when you’re invited to attend.

Get any lumps or concerning changes checked by your GP,” she says. “If you get invited to a screening programme like BreastCheck or CervicalCheck, make sure you go. If you catch cancer early, it can be treated and you’ll still have your whole life ahead of you.