Palliative care gave me a better quality of life

As we recognise the positive role of palliative care, Áilín Quinlan talks to a father-of-three about his experience after a diagnosis of stage four neuroendocrine cancer

WHEN cancer patient Donal Crowley was invited to Marymount Hospice for a consultation last February, the 61-year-old, who had been fighting an advanced-stage rare form of the disease for more than 18 months, was filled with trepidation.

“I was in a very dark place at the time, and up to that point, palliative care to me was synonymous with death and dying,” he recalls.