“They’re very dismissive of younger women.” That is how Carloyn Kenny (45) described the early days of her breast cancer diagnosis in 2016. Ms Kenny had to fight for her diagnosis after not being taken seriously enough by doctors.
With triple negative breast cancer, an uncommon form of the disease that represents one in eight diagnoses of the disease in Ireland, she said her symptoms went undetected by a mammogram before being picked up by a biopsy.
The Irish Cancer Society (ICS) says “99 per cent of women survive breast cancer when diagnosed at stage one”. Survival drops to 37 percent for people diagnosed at stage four. “The earlier cancer is caught, the better the outcomes are,” the organisation said.
Just 36 at the time of her diagnosis, Ms Kenny was 14 years away from being able to avail of free BreastCheck services, an issue she believes needs to be urgently addressed.
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The ICS is calling on the Government to lower the age for breast cancer screening from 50 to 45, in line with recommendations from the European Council.
Informed by past experiences, Ms Kenny says she is now always determined to be heard during medical appointments. “I stand my ground when I go to the doctors now,” she said. “I always go with my gut.”
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Feelings of being ignored and having to fight for recognition are shared by many living with cancer. In the span of one month, Bernard Mahon went from discussing “suspected cancer” with his doctors to being told he had stage four cancer in his stomach.
After mentally processing this news, Mr Mahon’s next step was to get appropriate medication. “I had to fight my insurer for access to the drug,” he said, adding that they eventually agreed to supply Pembro to him on “compassionate grounds, not medical grounds”.
“I was lucky,” he said. “I’m articulate, I can argue my case, I can talk to my local politicians. I was able to do all that, but others can’t.”
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The ICS says “access to new medicines is significantly slower” in Ireland. “As a result, patients are being denied medicines that can significantly improve and save lives.”
Mr Mahon has had “a phenomenally positive response” to the drug. He is now pushing for better cancer-support services across the country. He identified “a need for faster access to therapies and infrastructure”, saying that although there is an issue of services being concentrated in urban areas such as Dublin, “Dublin hasn’t even got enough either”.
A woman from Donegal, who asked not to be named, detailed how she has to take a two-hour round trip in order to avail of a 15-minute treatment for breast cancer.
She said this can bring about trauma associated with hospital visits as she has to spend a considerable amount of time in the oncology department to access a drug that can, in some cases, be administered over the counter.
The woman described a peer support group provided by the Irish Cancer Society as “genuinely life changing”. She said this service connects people of a similar age who are at similar stages of the same cancer diagnosis. It has turned a potentially isolating and scary experience into one which can be dealt with alongside others, she said.
