A Monaghan woman has shared her experience of having a cancer scare following the discovery of a benign tumour.
Orla Sweeney spoke on the Joe Finnegan show this morning, explaining how her symptoms began in August 2024.
She started to experience pain in her neck and shoulder, which she dismissed and put down to her job as a hairdresser.
She went to the physio and doctor but the pain only got worse, and she began to have pains in her chest, shortness of breath and severe headaches.
Orla explained how after numerous doctor visits, she was told she was fine, when she knew something was wrong herself.
Speaking on the Joe Finnegan show this morning, she told of the tumour that was found following a scan she did in Drogheda.
"So I decided I had to go for a private MRI. I felt like I had no other choice, I wasn't getting answers anywhere else. So I had the scan done in Drogheda in early November and would you believe, I didn't even make it back home to Monaghan by the time my doctor called me to say that there was in fact a mass and that I needed to go back to hospital.
So I did that and after further tests and scans, yes, it was discovered I had a 15 centimetre tumour which was compressing my left lung and my heart. So the tumour was removed via sternotomy in St. James's Hospital the end of November at a mass of 22 centimetres, so the size of a small baby you could say. Sternotomy was, the safest approach here because of its size and because of how much it was compressing my heart."
Orla explained how the whole thing took a mental toll, and her two children waiting for her at home gave her strength.
She was pleased to say that 14 months on she's ran a half marathon and is training for a Hyrox, so she says there are brighter days ahead.
