Cork Girls follow American lead to put positive face on treatment and recovery
And like those members of the Cork Girls Club, they have a lot to teach us about the business of living. Since their diagnosis, these woman have fallen in love, had children, got married, made movies, written books, started support organisations and raised money.
“The new face of cancer is people living with the disease, managing it, and in some ways making a better life,” says Kris Carr, of America’s Learning Channel. “It’s not about how long you live. It’s about how you live.”
Carr directed and produced the acclaimed documentary, Crazy, Sexy Cancer. She has a rare form of vascular cancer which was diagnosed when she was 31.
“I was petrified at first,” she recalls. “But I turned my fear into action, and I formed a corporation called ‘Save My Ass Technologies Inc’ then made a documentary about my search for a cure.
“I still get people who say, ‘Bless your dear heart, keep up the fight’, when I’m doing book signings. And the funny thing is, it’s never another patient who makes me feel terminal. I often think, ‘Did you miss the whole point? I’m more alive than you are’.”
“It’s not that I’m totally fearless, but I learned to manage my fear,” Carr says. “But if I do get scared, it usually means that I’m out of balance in another area of my life.
“You can become so debilitated and fall into hypochondria. Is that cough just a cough? When I get to those places, I know it’s time to do something as simple as to change the environment and go for a walk.”
Meanwhile, in Cork, Ann Dowley Spillane and her Girls Club members are not only preparing to move into their new premises, but are busy organising an April fashion show, and their first ball, on March 3, and a sky diving fundraiser. It’s going to be a busy year for the Cork Girls.
“I had a call from a group in Ballingeary recently,” Ann says. “They had heard about our club and they want us to come down and talk to them about what we’re doing, how we go about it.
“Working with rural women who are cancer survivors, helping them set up clubs, is something I want to do. The Girls Club is all about fun and a fighting spirit. Together, we can support each other, remain positive and most of all, keep smiling.”
