'You never think about getting cancer young'

When Emma Muldowney went into the hospital with stomach pain at the age of 23, she never expected a cancer diagnosis. Six months after finishing chemotherapy, she's running a mini-marathon to raise vital funds

Fri, 17 Sep, 2021 - 20:19

Martha Brennan

This Sunday marks the 39th annual VHI Women’s Mini Marathon event and though the race will take place virtually this year, thousands of women across Ireland are gearing up for their 10k and raising vital funds for Irish charities.

Among them is 24 year old Emma Muldowney, who is raising money for the Irish Cancer Society. The Dubliner will be running with 20 of her friends near her home in Dalkey on the day, to mark exactly one year since she went into hospital with stomach pain — and later left with a cancer diagnosis.

"Before last year, I was just your typical 23 year old. I had no health problems at all. Then I started to not feel great in August 2020. I was tired and had some stomach pain but it didn't feel like anything too serious. It went away again," Emma says.

"But then one day in September it came back and I suddenly had this really sharp abdominal pain. I knew straight away it was serious because I couldn't walk. We went to the hospital and I was admitted. They weren't sure what it was but they could see a large mass on my right side. I had surgery and they tested the mass and that's when they realised it was a very rare form of cancer."

A whirlwind

A month after her surgery, Emma was diagnosed with Dysgerminoma, a type of ovarian cancer that only accounts for 2% of cases and is most common for women under age 30. She had never heard of the condition before her diagnosis.

“It was just a whirlwind. I presumed that when they tested the mass it was going to be fine because that was the most likely case. You never think about getting cancer young. I had never even heard of this form of it,” she says.

“It was a really big shock but I was lucky because it was diagnosed at stage one. I did undergo chemotherapy from December to February to make sure it didn’t spread though and that was hard. It was quite an intense regime. I had to be admitted to the hospital for a week at a time to have it.”

"When you’re young you presume you're going to be healthy, it's not something you spend every day being thankful for."

Emma says that Christmas was a particularly difficult time to be in and out of the hospital. Due to Covid-19, she couldn’t have any visitors and had to be particularly careful because of her weakened immune system.

“It takes all of your energy and I lost all of my hair. It took me three months to recover from the surgery as well. When you’re young, you don’t know what it feels like to have such a lack of energy. It really was the hardest part. Some days I couldn’t even lift up my phone to answer a call. It was crazy,” she says.

“But it’s also crazy how quickly it comes back. When you’re going through it, it can seem like it’s never going to get better and you lose faith in your body but a lot of the time it does get better.

"We always hear about the people who don’t recover but a lot of people do.”

All clear

Highlighting this was another reason that Emma wanted to do the mini-marathon this week. She wanted to show others that it’s possible to run again, just six months after finishing chemotherapy in her case. While doing so, she has also raised €14,300 for the Irish Cancer Society, with the help of her friends.

“I used some of the Irish Cancer Society's services while I was going through everything,” Emma says. “It’s so important to have those services, like the counselling helplines, because the mental struggles are huge when you have cancer. Hopefully, some of the money raised can help people going through it all.”

Emma has a lot to celebrate after the race this weekend. She received her second clear scan this week and is also about to start a new job with Accenture, having finished her masters degree in management consultancy while she went through chemotherapy.

“I liked having something else going on in my life besides treatment. It was a reason to get up and try to keep going,” she says.

“Everything is really positive now. The cancer is unlikely to come back and everything is going great. Just being able to do this run shows a lot."

The past year has changed Emma's perspective on life in many ways.

"When you’re young you presume you're going to be healthy, it's not something you spend every day being thankful for.

"Now I'm just so thankful for my health every single day. It's given me a whole new appreciation for all the small things in life. I think it all just goes to show that it’s so worth getting something checked if you're worried, no matter what age you are.”