Bus accident robbed Kathleen Lynch of her childhood memories

Junior health minister Kathleen Lynch has revealed how an accident left her without memory of most of her childhood.

The Labour minister, originally from Farranree in Cork City, revealed how much of her teenage years were lost after she was run over by a double-decker bus at age 10. The accident left her in hospital for much of the following seven years.

Speaking to the Irish Mail on Sunday, Ms Lynch said that most of her memories from her youth have been pieced together by her family.

“My family have tried to help me remember things over the years but it has made no difference. I know that a cousin of mine sent a magnificent dress for my Communion but I don’t remember it. I’m sure I had a lovely childhood and that I was completely spoilt though,” she said.

The junior minister for health said the accident left her in and out of hospital for years and resulted in her having to learn how to walk again.

“Someone squirted me with water and, me being me, I gave chase. But they got across the road in time and I didn’t. All that remained of my leg was the bone, so I was in bed for years. I can’t tell you how many operations I had.

“Even when I got home, I had to go down to the hospital for dressings twice a week.

“When I was 17, I had major surgery to remove part of my stomach to put on my leg. I had to learn how to walk again,” she said.

Ms Lynch said that, despite losing so much of her youth, the traumatic experience has shaped her passion for dealing with mental health issues as minister.

“I can understand why after a person is one, two or three years’ sick, that people stop visiting them. It happened to me.

“My friends drifted away because they were doing things that most 11 or 12 or 13-year-olds were doing. They had lives and they moved on. I understand that.

“I’m tolerant of the fact that most of us are not as good as Mother Teresa. My sister Sheila was two years older than me and called into me in hospital every single night.

“She used to bring chips, chat to me and then she’d be off about her teenage life,” she said.