Less than seven months after a major operation to remove a tumour in his eye, Dublin man Cormac Breslin is umpiring at the Olympics in Beijing. This is his story as told to Fiona Tyrrell
LAST NOVEMBER everything was going swimmingly. I had just been informed that I was one of 10 European umpires selected to officiate at the badminton event at the Beijing Olympic Games. I was extremely excited. It is what I had been working towards as an umpire for the past 20 years.
I had been having some irritation in my left eye and doing the typical Irish male thing, I ignored it, aside from putting some eye drops in.
In January, I went to my GP to get my immunisation shots for the trip to China and I mentioned the eye. She had a look and recommended I go to an ophthalmologist.
I knew things weren't good when I saw the blood drain from the ophthalmologist's face two days later. He told me that my retina was detached. Little did I know that this news was going to be the best of the bad news I was set to receive all day.
I was packed off in a taxi to the Mater hospital straight away. At that stage all that was on my mind was "How long is it going to take to get it fixed before China?"
In the Mater I was told in a very matter of fact way that the detached retina was caused by a very large tumour in my eye. The surgeon described the tumour (a malignant choroidal melanoma) as a volcano that had been building up for over a decade pushing my retina out.
It was a massive shock. Then I was told that because the eye is such a big blood user, there is a very high chance that the cancer had spread to the liver. Tests at the Mater indicated that it had not spread to the liver.
Then, because there are only about 20-25 cases a year of this type of tumour in Ireland, I was referred to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital for treatment under Prof Bertil Damato.
Within the month I had my assessment in Liverpool. The results were delivered to me and my wife Maureen in front of a team of seven doctors. The whole meeting was recorded so I could listen to it later if I had any questions.
Because the tumour was so big we were given only two options - removal of the eye or removal of the tumour through a trapdoor in the eye wall.
The second option was quite risky because it would involve reducing my blood pressure to a third of its normal level, cutting the eye muscle, rotating the eye, making an incision into the eye and sucking out the tumour.
I was determined not to lose my eye so I went for this option.
As the procedure would take three to four hours I had to return home to Ireland and come back to Liverpool the following week. It was like living with a death sentence over my head for a week.
I was told that if things did not go well during the operation, they would remove my eye. The operation took place on Tuesday and it was a success. I was discharged on Thursday and I had to take a Ryanair flight home the next day.
I was still very wobbly the day we were travelling, but I just wanted to get home. I looked like I had had an argument with someone and lost it.
My wife had to administer four different types of eye drops, I had to take lots of tablets (10-15 of them at a time) and we had to find somewhere in the airport that had very little sunlight.
We found that there was very poor support before and little or no follow-up care from either the public or private systems in Ireland.
It seemed that because I had been referred to Liverpool, the Irish system had washed its hands of me. We were given the address of the hospital and sent off.
The operation itself cost €7,500 and on top of that there were all sorts of bills. We paid for them ourselves and claimed what we could from VHI.
Even though I was referred to Liverpool by the HSE, it has paid nothing towards our travel expenses. We have been to Liverpool six times in all.
I gave up my job in investments seven years ago to be with the kids, but I found that my 20 years of PRSI contributions counted for nothing nor did my wife's contributions. She has received 10 per cent towards her travel costs.
We are not poor and we can afford to pay it, but it was the first time that we ever needed the system and we found that the system was not there for us.
The goal of the operation was to save my eye and it has succeeded in that. I have to live with the fact that in the next two years I have a 50 per cent chance of the cancer going to my liver and over my lifetime the risk is much, much higher.
I look on it has having a head start on getting liver cancer. At the moment I can be quite flippant about it because I got the all-clear a month ago, but I know I will not keep getting the all-clear all my life.
For the first three months after the operation my vision was a bit hazy. After that, it improved dramatically. I have lost a little of my peripheral vision which means that I miss stuff coming from behind, but it doesn't affect my umpiring. Since the operation I have umpired at two international events and everything went very well.
I have been umpiring for the past 20 years and have been a Badminton World Federation umpire since 2006. It is done on a voluntary basis and involves a big time commitment. Badminton is seen as a very gentle sport but in reality it can be very aggressive and is very intense - everything happens in the blink of an eye at a speed of up to 150mph.
As badminton tournaments go, I don't expect the Olympics to be the most tense experience. It is a big showcase. Like a wedding it will be all about the cake and the flowers. That said, there is a lot of pressure to get everything right.
Readers who would like to talk about their own health experiences, good or bad, can contact this column at healthsupplement@irish-times.ie