‘Edel said ‘I’ll be at Brian’s Communion’ and she was’

RESPECTED RTÉ GAA pundit Michael Duignan has told how his terminally ill wife astounded medics by living to keep her promise to be at her son’s communion.

The Offaly All-Ireland winner has opened up about his struggles in his book Life, Hurling and Death.

A widower since his 41-year-old wife Edel died of cancer in 2009, he said his two young sons, aged 13 and 11, gave him the strength to cope with the tragedy.

“They knew Edel had cancer and she was getting treatment. Eventually that summer we knew time was running out so we knew we had to sit them down and say she wasn’t going to get better.

“It’s very hard to do. I don’t think at that age in your life you’re prepared for that. They would be an inspiration for me in the way they dealt with it.”

He said his wife grew amazingly accepting of her fate in the years before she passed away.

He told RTÉ’s Saturday Night Show: “She went off very peacefully and she didn’t suffer. She was completely accepting and had a very strong faith. I don’t know how she did it.”

He said he agreed to write the book to help other cancer victims and their families to come to terms with the disease.

He said his wife, who was determined to live to see her youngest child make his Communion, passed away three months after the event.

“The communion was always around June 9 every year and it was that week that Edel was diagnosed and she was just told she was going to die basically.

“Brian’s Communion was three years on. She pushed the oncologist to know how long she had. He eventually gave in and said maybe 12 months as it was in her liver and her spine.

“She said ‘I’ll be at Brian’s Communion’. I said it was an incredible thing to say. I knew it was three years down the road. She was there.”