‘Travellers are dying of same diseases as all of us’

The ethnic group no longer fears the word ‘cancer’, thanks to community health education

Caroline Murray:“Literacy can be a barrier — they get so many letters and medical letters, and it can become overwhelming sometimes." Picture: Ray Ryan

The spectre of cancer haunts every family, including in the Traveller community.

Caroline Murray, a HSE senior health promotion and improvement officer in cancer prevention with the HSE, says, “Cancer is a big word in the Traveller community, it is a big fear and a big barrier. They would say themselves that [the fear] would be diminishing — at one stage, you could barely say the word, they’d be blessing themselves.”