‘Nobody should face cancer alone’
Tipperary woman and cancer survivor, Bianca Cahalan, is calling on her local community to go all in against cancer for the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Day, which takes place on Friday, March 22.
In 2022, aged just 34, Bianca from Ballylusky, Co Tipperary, was diagnosed with a rare postpartum cancer, just months after the birth of her third child. The cancer impacts one in 50,000 pregnancies. Reflecting on her cancer experience, Bianca only got to spend six-to-eight weeks of her maternity leave bonding with her newborn, before she was thrown into dealing with her cancer diagnosis.
Bianca says: “It just baffles me really that your maternity leave can’t be deferred. For about 25 weeks of my maternity leave, I was in and out of hospitals trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with me, getting the diagnosis and then dealing with my treatment and all that entailed.
“I fully support the Irish Cancer Society’s Leave our Leave campaign to give women the right to defer their maternity leave if they get sick - these are the types of supports that the Irish Cancer Society offers and tries to force changes on to help people affected by cancer. Because of their commitment to these campaigns, as well as their range of supports and services, I’m calling on people to go all in and get behind Daffodil Day.”
The Irish Cancer Society is there to ensure that every person affected by cancer has a place to turn to, the support they need and the hope that there will come a day when no one in Ireland dies from cancer.
Thanks to the amazing generosity of the Irish public the Irish Cancer Society invests in groundbreaking cancer research and delivers crucial free support services for people affected by cancer, throughout Tipperary. In 2023, your generous support provided:
850 free lifts to bring Tipperary based cancer patients to their treatment; Almost 700 free counselling sessions to people living in Tipperary; and Over 400 nights of free Night Nursing care to allow cancer patients in Tipperary to die at home surrounded by loved ones.
Irish Cancer Society CEO, Averil Power, added: “Unfortunately, one in two of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. There isn’t a family in Ireland that hasn’t been touched by the disease. When Daffodil Day first began in 1986, just three in ten Irish people survived a cancer diagnosis. Today, thanks to investment in innovative cancer research, that has doubled to six in ten people in Ireland surviving cancer. And we at the Irish Cancer Society won’t stop until ten out of ten people survive a cancer diagnosis.
“The more we raise on Daffodil Day, the more we can do, and the more lifesaving research we can fund. We only receive 5% of our income from the government, so we’re urging everyone in Tipperary to Go All In this Daffodil Day, March 22, to help us achieve a future where nobody dies from cancer in Ireland, and everyone affected by the disease has the support they need when they need it most.”
NORTH TIPP VOLUNTEER APPEAL
People of Nenagh and surrounding districts join thousands of people across Ireland in the fight against cancer on March 22.
Get involved on Daffodil Day and support free nationwide services for cancer patients and their families. Contact - Mary Doyle 087 2700647 if you have an hour to spare to collect at a table. You will all be doing something amazing to help cancer patients and their families in the fight against cancer.