Not even cancer can stop granny graduating

A REMARKABLE Limerick grandmother has graduated with a BA Honours degree having fought breast cancer which necessitated a mastectomy in the middle of her studies.

Carol McKie, from Norwood Park, was the toast of the Limerick Institute of Technology after receiving her parchment for multi-media and programme design.

Carol said: “Now I’m going to take a bit of time out from my studies before embarking on a Masters degree course.”

But Carol recalls the darkness that enveloped her mature student endeavours three years ago.

She said maybe some good will come out of the current scandal. “I think in the long term it will concentrate people’s minds. We need a roll-out of a nationwide breast screening programme as a matter of urgency. And even this is deficient in that it does not cater for young women. I was 49 when I was diagnosed. Women are now getting breast cancer at much younger ages.”

Carol recalled her nightmare brush with death due to breast cancer.

She said: “I had just started fourth year when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the Regional Hospital. I had noticed a lump when having a shower. The Regional Hospital was fantastic and the college support system was great and they allowed me to defer my studies until I was ready to come back.

“I had to have a mastectomy in October and I then got great care in the breast care clinic at the hospital.”

Following surgery Carol began a course of chemotherapy in January 2005.

To add to her medical difficulties, she contracted MRSA after her surgery and spent the Christmas period paying daily visits to the hospital for treatment. The following July she started seven weeks of radiotherapy. Carol said: “This meant travelling to Dublin as radiotherapy was then not available in Limerick. I stayed in the Bons Secours hospital and had my daily treatment in the Mater Private. The radiotherapy was completed in August, 2005.”

Brave Carol then decided it was time to get back to the books and her studies to complete her final year.

She said: “I probably went back too soon and I found it very hard going. However the course co-ordinator, Patricia Greene, came to the rescue and allowed me to divide my final year into two yearly halves.”

November 2, 2007 is a day Carol will never forget.

“I graduated with my husband John and our daughters Alison (25), Fiona (15) and our son Ian (20) all there along with our grandson Evan, six. It was a fantastic ceremony. Unfortunately my mum, Peggy Culhane, who is 79 from Garryowen couldn’t get there as she got sick.”

Speaking about the current breast cancer crisis, Carol said: “It is very frightening and I feel so much sympathy for all those women. It is such a frightening situation to be in.”

Carol has now decided to help cancer research by taking part in trials for treatments for bone cancer.