'Four years after cervical cancer surgeries, they found a different cancer on my adrenal gland'

Violinist Aoife Ní Bhriain tells Helen O’Callaghan how, following 10 years of adverse life events, including two different cancers, she finally decided enough was enough: she was getting on with life — without fear

Aoife Ní Bhriain: 'I was in my early 30s, and I’d already been diagnosed with cervical cancer in my 20s. They’d taken my cervix and all my pelvic lymph nodes.'

Waking up Christmas Eve 2024 in the critical care unit of the Royal Marsden Hospital, Chelsea, a tumour on my adrenal gland and the adrenal gland itself had been removed. Thinking: it’s finally over, the dark cloud hanging over my head has finally lifted, I could get on with life again.

I was in my early 30s, and I’d already been diagnosed with cervical cancer in my 20s. They’d taken my cervix and all my pelvic lymph nodes.