Emma Hannigan, Majella O’Donnell and Áine Lawlor on going public with their cancer diagnoses

Helen O’Callaghan talks to three high-profile women whose experience of breast cancer triggered a new creative phase, setting them on a path of self-discovery, healing, and a greater appreciation of life.

A breast cancer diagnosis is a devastating blow, but for three Irish women it sparked a creative impulse, to shape a story — whether fictional, factual or visual.

We talk to Emma Hannigan, Majella O’Donnell and Áine Lawlor, who reframed their breast cancer experience — in fiction, memoir and documentary — and found a healing potential in putting their story ‘out’ there