FEATURE: From healthy living to cancer, and back again

EMMA NEVILLE is preparing her garden for spring. With her short blonde hair and Hunter wellies, she’s teaching her four children to plant bulbs in old tyres, and to feed the birds in houses made of recycled floorboards from the attic of their pink-painted house in the country.

Neville, 40, does not drink alcohol, eats home-grown organic fruit and vegetables, drinks wheatgrass juice and green tea, does not use hair and beauty products that contain chemicals, and exercises and meditates. She will participate in next month’s annual Kinsale Pink Ribbon walk, in aid of Action Breast Cancer. In 2011, without symptoms or family history, Neville was diagnosed with breast cancer. “I was the embodiment of healthy living. I had a fantastic exercise regime and diet, was below the average weight, didn’t smoke and was only a moderate drinker,” says Neville, who had a heavy cough and two prolonged bouts of flu.

“I went to the GP, because I just wanted to get things checked out and to rule out any scary things. I thought they were going to tell me that I was fine, but, instead, there were hushed voices,” says Neville, a solicitor, TV presenter, and garden designer.