Call to allow women to defer maternity leave after cancer diagnosis

Erica Tierney and her daughter Róise, 2, at the launch of the Irish Cancer Society’s Leave our Leave campaign to allow women to defer maternity leave following a cancer diagnosis. Picture: Maxwells

A cancer survivor, who was diagnosed while 30 weeks pregnant, is calling for a change in legislation after she was unable to defer her maternity leave while she was recovering.

Erica Tierney from Kildare received a breast cancer diagnosis while 30 weeks pregnant.

She says she will not be able to recoup the time she lost with her child, having spent all but one week of her maternity leave receiving treatment, but wants to see the legislation changed for the women who will go through the same experience in the coming years.

The 36-year-old was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer while pregnant with her daughter, Róise.

So, unfortunately, it was necessary for me to have a mastectomy while I was 33 weeks pregnant,” said Erica. 

"And then because we needed to start chemotherapy as soon as possible, her delivery was brought forward a little bit. And Róise was born at 38 weeks in November 2019."

Erica, who is a scientist with a large multinational pharmaceutical company, says she is now cancer-free. However, the draining process of overcoming cancer meant she missed out on key time to bond with her baby.

Having learnt that it was not possible to bank her maternity leave, Erica contacted the Irish Cancer Society and, through further research, it was estimated that around 60 women a year in Ireland will be affected by the “unfair legislative anomaly”. 

Erica also learned that if her husband had fallen ill, he would have been able to defer his paternity leave.

"I just feel so strongly about it, in a case of such a serious illness like this where I, and a lot of women like me, don't know if we're actually even going to survive treatment,” said Erica.

The other reason why it's so important is very often when you've had chemotherapy and a lot of the drugs that we've had to take to kill cancer. It leaves us infertile.

"So it just means that our maternity leave becomes even more important because very often it's the last or potentially the only one you'll ever have.” 

Leave our Leave campaign

Off the back of Erica’s story, and the stories of others like her, the Irish Cancer Society has brought forward a new Leave our Leave campaign, which was launched outside Leinster House on Thursday.

Campaign supporters Emma McGuinness and Mary Canavan with advocacy champion Erica Tierney, and her daughter Róise, 2, at the launch of the Irish Cancer Society’s campaign. 

It is calling on the Government to change current legislation that prevents women from deferring their maternity leave while they are being treated and recovering from cancer.

Rachel Morrogh from the Irish Cancer Society said they had written to Children's Minister Roderic O’Gorman, whose department this issue comes under, and appealed to him to make the necessary legislative amendments to ensure maternity leave does not expire while a woman is undergoing life-saving treatment.

The women affected are vulnerable and traumatised by such happy and sad life events coinciding," she said. 

"Being able to keep their maternity leave until the end of their treatment would go some way to being able to claw back special bonding time.” 

In response to the concerns raised by the Irish Cancer Society, a spokesperson from the Department of Children said they will examine the issues raised by the Irish Cancer Society.

“All forms of family leave are kept under review to ensure they are effective in supporting families and children,” a spokesperson said.