“I was carried along by an army of people I’ve never even met”
Tara Doonan is our Daffodil Day ambassador this year and is leading the campaign to say thank you to those she credits with helping her through the most difficult experience of her life.
Diagnosed with breast cancer aged just 36 Tara leaned heavily on Irish Cancer Society supports such as our Support Line and remote counselling – all of which are only made possible because of days like Daffodil Day.
She says, “I was carried along by an army of people I’ve never even met” and says she “doesn’t know where she would be today without that crucial support.”
In the summer of 2022, Tara from Co. Cavan was diagnosed with Invasive Ductal Carcinoma, a type of breast cancer.
“I had no symptoms at all, bar finding a lump one evening when I removed my bra. It was quite a large lump and breast cancer immediately came into my head, followed quickly by ‘I’m too young to get cancer, it must be a cyst or hormonal’. The next week, my husband noticed it too, so I went to my GP. She reassured me that it felt fibrous and was unlikely to be anything sinister but referred me for a triple assessment in August to confirm.”
After undergoing an ultrasound, mammogram and biopsy, Tara was told by her consultant that they were highly suspicious it was breast cancer, but they’d need to wait for the biopsy results to come back.
“Those two weeks waiting for the results were terrifying. Once they confirmed it was cancer, they did an MRI and CT scan, and thankfully they told me the cancer hadn’t spread. We had been trying to start a family for 4 years before my diagnosis, so to then find out I had cancer was a real kick in the teeth, to put it mildly!"
“When I was first told it might be cancer, I didn’t really know where to turn to, I knew nothing about the world of cancer. "
"My cancer wasn’t hormonal positive, so we were able to do one round of IVF before starting chemotherapy and we managed to freeze 4 embryos. I am afraid to hope that someday our dreams of becoming parents will come true.”
“When I was first told it might be cancer, I didn’t really know where to turn to, I knew nothing about the world of cancer. I spoke with an Irish Cancer Society nurse, who talked me through the different types of biopsies, what they mean, what the next steps might be and treatment options. It was so helpful. I also used the website a lot to find out about wigs and what might happen during treatment, it was just brilliant and an invaluable resource to me.”
Tara’s treatment included 5 months of chemotherapy, a lumpectomy and 4 weeks of radiotherapy, which finished in June 2023.
"I was going through was common – moving from being a patient, to reclaiming some kind of normal life."
“My body reacted badly to the first type of chemo. I had all the symptoms going and I was very sick, it was tough. Then, one day, my treatment programme finished. I was done. I was out the other side. Happy days, you would think. But suddenly, I felt like the loneliest person in the world, and everything just caught up with me. I found myself in the middle of a huge, unexpected crisis. I reached out to the Irish Cancer Society. And they were there for me.
They set me up with a counsellor, who reassured me that what I was going through was common – moving from being a patient, to reclaiming some kind of normal life. And to be honest, that’s still very much an ongoing journey.”
Would you like to do more?
Want to get involved in Daffodil Day this year? Join us on March 28, and go all in against cancer! Click the button below to find out all the ways you can take part in Daffodil Day this year!
