Daffodil Diaries - Patrick Phelan

“The Irish Cancer Society Transport Service was there for me when I didn’t even know what it was.”

In May 2021, Patrick Phelan, then aged 48 began to feel very tied and worn out.

“I suppose I just put it down to work catching up with me. I’d been tired for a few weeks. Then this one morning, I’ll never forget it, I woke up with a pain in my calf – it was bulging and red and I had the sweats and everything. I went to my GP and he rang ahead to Kilkenny Hospital and I was straight in. It was a blood clot and they identified three more that had travelled to my lungs. I also had pneumonia. After a period of recovery, I was eventually discharged.”

Soon after this, Patrick was back in hospital. “I was back again that June, this time with another blood clot around my groin area. That was a very tough time and they kept me in for a number of weeks. I had an enlarged spleen, my lymph nodes were swollen, I lost two stone in weight. This was still during Covid and thankfully, I wasn’t allowed visitors. I didn’t want anyone seeing me like that. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, but I remember being in the hospital that time and I thought I was gone.”

Patrick underwent a series of tests and was sent to Whitfield Hospital in Waterford. “In late 2021 and into early 2022, they done a series of bone marrow tests and the consultants thought I had a form of leukemia. This hit me like a ton of bricks but I remember turning to my wife and saying ‘at least we know what it is’.

After further tests and sending my bone marrow for testing in Germany, by June 2022 I got my final diagnosis and they told me I had a more serious type of leukemia – Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML). In the first instance, I wouldn’t have needed a bone marrow transplant, but with the CMML, I needed one. By January 2023, a match was found for my bone marrow transplant and I was up to James’s for that surgery and then for stem cell treatment.”

It was through his travel from Kilkenny to Waterford where Patrick first came into contact with the Irish Cancer Society. “My wife doesn’t drive. I drove myself once or twice and then had family and friends step in to drive me and it was one of the nurses in Waterford who gave me the number for the Irish Cancer Society Transport Service. I had never heard of it and I suppose, you don’t hear of these things until you need them. They picked me up at my house, dropped me to Waterford, waited outside and brought me back. When I was up in Dublin, I was fortunate to be able to stay with a sister of mine in Carrickmines and again, the Transport Service took me over and back to James’s every time I needed it. I would have been absolutely lost without that Service.”

Following three months of treatment in Dublin, Patrick returned to Kilkenny. “I was still up and down to James’s on the train twice a week for follow up appointments for a while but gradually, I was able to reduce the treatment and monitoring. It was a very worrying time to be back out in the public after my period of isolation. My immune system was shot and it has been a long road to recovery. The bone marrow transplant is one of the most difficult treatments the body can go through so I had to be patient to start working my way back to a bit of normality.”

Patrick is sharing his story to raise awareness cancer, to thank his medical team and ahead of Daffodil Day, to thank the Irish Cancer Society.

“Throughout my sickness before I even knew it was cancer, and then afterwards, I just can’t thank the medical team enough. They were brilliant and I just trusted them and stayed off Google. They were at the end of the phone when I had questions. I tried to stay positive throughout the treatment journey and I think keeping a positive mindset, even when it is really dark and difficult is just so important. The Irish Cancer Society Transport Service was there for me when I didn’t even know what it was."

"That support when you have your wife and your boys and you’re going through treatment is just incredible. Getting to and from your appointments was just one less thing to worry about. None of that would be possible without the generous support people give to the Irish Cancer Society and that is why I’d encourage anybody to support Daffodil Day because it’s people like me, and families like mine you’re helping.”