Galway Advertiser 2008/GA_2008_04_17/GA_1704_E1_020.pdf 

Extracted text

20

Galway Advertiser

April 17 2008

NEWS

.

FASHION

BEAUTY

.

H E A LT H

.

LIFE

MARY

O'CONNOR

`Cancer made me the person I am'
Sinead Treacher was a first year student at Moneenageisha Community College when she began to complain of a dull pain in her right leg. A keen sprinter, she noticed the pain got worse when she walked or ran. The then 13-year-old from St James' Road in Mervue had swelling on the inside of her leg, also. Her doctor believed fluid was causing the problem. However, her mother was not happy with the diagnosis. She took Sinead to the A &E department at the Regional Hospital. "I think it was a mother's intuition, she felt there was something more wrong," says Sinead. "I was losing weight and was pale and gawky. "When my mother took me to casualty it was as if everything stopped, the world stopped. I was sent to Merlin Park for a biopsy. I was there for a week for tests. I was getting a lot of presents. When my mother's best friend brought my dog in to see me, I wondered what was going on. Nobody was telling me nothing. Then I was sent to Crumlin Hospital." At first, it all seemed like an adventure. "I was 13, I didn't worry. I was in Dublin, a big place. I went up in a taxi and felt very important. The enormity of it all [her illness] didn't hit me." She was 10 days in hospital when she found out she had osteogenic sarcoma, one of the most common types of bone cancer in children. She was given two years to live.

Sinead Treacher

Sixth sense
She believes her late mother had a "sixth sense" all along that it was cancer. "You could see the toll of it all on her face." Sinead says she had no idea what cancer was. "The diagnosis didn't mean anything to me. I spent five months up there getting chemotherapy, the sickness was very bad after it, they had to put me to sleep. I went down to four stone. I hated the colour of the chemo, it was ruby red, they had to put a bag over it so I wouldn't see it." She had 15 rounds of chemotherapy over two years. She spent five months in hospital in Dublin, most of which passed in a "haze", she says. "I was drugged up, I was so ill all I did was sleep. Mammy was with me all the time. She put her whole soul into me. All you had when the lights were out was your mother. She was a very strong woman. She brought five of us up herself after she and my father separated." Sometimes Sinead would be allowed home for the weekend. "I used to go

home when my blood counts were right. I'd be there on a Friday evening at 5pm and I'd be thinking `Please let my bloods be grand' I wanted to go home to my sisters and my dogs. I treasured this time with my family. After five months I got back home for a weekend. I missed going to the Pioneer Club on Friday nights in Mervue. I couldn't go there because of my lowered immune system. "In hospital we were all quarantined, we were all in glass cubicles. There was a line drawn at the side of the bed and I was not allowed over it because my immune system was so low. I was bald but that wasn't a big deal. I went to get a wig fitted but decided not to go for it. There I was bald as a coot with a gammy leg."

Gritty determination
Blessed with a gritty determination and a powerful will to survive Sinead refused to be beaten. "I was angry, I was a person who fought cancer. I didn't think I wouldn't survive. I used to say to my mother `Why me?' She used to say it's for a reason. I was so rebellious towards cancer, I was unreal. The one fear I had was that

they would take my leg off. "I remember one morning a doctor came in to me to measure my leg for a new prosthesis. I ate the head off him for waking me. He ate the head off me back. Afterwards he said I was a b.... and I would survive." She had about 13 operations in all, the first one to save her leg lasted 12 hours. "My mother spent the 12 hours in the church. Even the surgeon, Mr Brian Horson, who saved my leg, lit a candle for me." She has strong memories of her time in hospital. The death of two young fellow patients and the long corridor at the Dublin hospital are etched indelibly onto her memory. "I remember Catherine and Treacy distinctly, they had cancer in their spines. The two of them died." She says she suffered from survivors' guilt afterwards. "I blamed myself, I felt bad for surviving." "My other memory is of that long, long corridor in the hospital, you never forget it. It was like walking from Eyre Square to the Quays." She was given the "all-clear" when she was 15 defying the odds which were heavily stacked against her when she was diagnosed initially.

"When I passed the five year deadline for relapse I felt grand. I asked where was the disco!"

Settling into school
Sinead, who is now in her thirties, attended school in between operations and had tuition in hospital, also. "I found it hard settling back into school. All my friends had boyfriends and hair. But because of the family I grew up in and my mother and her attitude you just got on with it. I didn't waste time. I always pushed myself, I was a bit of a rebel. If there was a party to be had I was at it. I had lots of years to make up for. I wanted to live life." She loved sewing and decided to make a career out of her passion on leaving school. She did courses in the subject in Galway and Dublin before opening her own business in Mervue doing repairs and alterations. "I got itchy feet later and said to myself `I've done that now what's next?'" So she changed direction and got a job at Galway Airport, a position she enjoyed. "I was there for one and a half years. They gave me a chance - always at interviews I explained about my

leg." She continued doing sewing repairs at night and in her spare time. "In the end I decided I would have to work at what my leg would let me and opened a business doing costume hire and sewing repairs and alterations in Ballybane Shopping Centre in January called Sew Easy Costumes." Sinead says she is grateful for what cancer has taught her and believes the whole experience has made her what she is today. "If an angel came to me I wouldn't change it [the cancer diagnosis]. That's because of what I've done, the people I've met - you can't buy knowledge. Cancer taught me a lot and made me the person I am. It's given me an appreciation of time and life. I've learned to do what I want to do and not to waste time. I've learned to give people time, too." She says she owes her life to her mother, Della, who sadly became ill four years ago and died of cancer. Her unfailing love and support helped Sinead cope. "If not for my mother I wouldn't be here. Simple things like a hug and her attitude. She said everything happens for a reason."