Working Life: ‘There’s been a lot of cancer in my family. It touches everyone’

Avril Deegan, childhood cancer survivor and researcher

Avril Deegan, childhood cancer survivor and researcher.

“I was diagnosed with childhood leukaemia at the age of five. I had two-and-a-half years of treatment, but I don’t remember much, probably because I was so young or because the brain blocks it out. It’s possible a lot of it went over my head.

“Now that I’m older (26), I think about it more and about the traumatic effect it must have had on my family. From speaking to my parents, they found the period after treatment ended very difficult.