Cork mum with lung cancer encourages public to get behind charity's check up campaign 

A Cork woman is calling on the public to get behind ‘The Big Check Up’ charity campaign, which aims to spread awareness of the symptoms of lung cancer.

Bandon native Gillian Ryan has said that increased funding for a mobile lung cancer screening unit is needed to promote awareness across the country, stressing that “all you need is lungs to get lung cancer”.

Ms Ryan, a lung cancer patient, was diagnosed with the disease three years ago, 10 days after her 40th birthday.

The mother of two, who was a fit and healthy non-smoker, is still undergoing observation and is waiting for results from recent scans to see if she will require surgery to remove a new nodule that has appeared on her left lung.

As a non-stereotypical candidate for lung cancer, Ms Ryan is passionate about raising awareness of the symptoms of the disease and how it can impact anyone, regardless of lifestyle or habitual behaviours.

“I was diagnosed with no symptoms, I was of optimal fitness — I ran 10km every day, and I went to the gym, [but now] I have had half of my right lung removed, and my lung capacity is at 70%,” Ms Ryan told The Echo.

“Getting that diagnosis, you die there, everything you know evaporates, and you have to pick the ashes up and try and form a new person with this disease inside that’s literally trying to kill you.

“Nobody in my family ever had a [cancer] diagnosis,” she said.

“It was just a cell mutation — it wasn’t a genetic thing; it just happened.

“I feel in this country we need more education, we need more awareness and more services surrounding lung cancer because knowledge is power, and it could save your life.

“We need a mobile screening unit, like they have for breast cancer, and the Marie Keating Foundation seem to be the only people who are doing anything for lung cancer at the moment.”

The Big Check Up campaign, now in its fifth year, was launched by the Marie Keating Foundation last week, in a bid to further promote awareness of the disease during the month of November, which is International Lung Cancer Awareness Month.

The campaign focuses on educating people about the symptoms of lung cancer, which include dizziness, fatigue, shortness of breath, back and shoulder pain, recurring chest infections, a deep cough for a prolonged period of time, and coughing up blood.

In Ireland, more than 2,500 people receive a lung cancer diagnosis each year, with just 24% of those diagnosed with the disease expected to survive more than five years.

The majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at stage three or stage four, meaning that treatment options are limited and survival rates are lower.

“If in doubt, get checked out. Be your own advocate. I never thought I’d get cancer — it wasn’t even in my vocabulary — but one of my cells went rogue and here we are,” said Ms Ryan.

For more information on The Big Check Up see: mariekeating.ie/the-big-check-up-2024/.