Lung cancer patients call for white ribbon awareness campaign to counter shaming

Cancer patient Samantha Vaughan from Green Roads, Ballybrophy, Co Laois. Picture: Alf Harvey

A white ribbon awareness campaign is urgently needed to fight the stigma and shaming lung cancer patients face in Ireland, two patients have said.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality in men and women with over 1,900 deaths annually in Ireland.

Gillian Ryan, a non-smoker and avid runner who lives near Bandon, Co Cork, was shocked by her diagnosis aged just 40 in 2021.

“It’s a very isolating disease in the sense you’re almost ashamed to tell people what cancer you have because their first thought is ‘oh you smoked, you deserve it’,” she said.

“There’s no-one who deserves cancer whether they smoked or didn’t smoke. I mean alcohol is associated with breast cancer but I’ve never once heard anybody say to a breast cancer patient ‘how much did you drink?.'"

Ireland has pink ribbons for breast cancer and gold for child cancer but not the white used elsewhere for lung cancer. 

 Gillian Ryan, from Bandon, Co Cork, has lung cancer. She is a non-smoker and wants people to end stigma against this type of cancerr.

“When I did a post on Instagram about this inequality, an American foundation reached out to me and said they would send me a white ribbon and a lung badge,” she said. “It’s just a shame it had to come all the way from America, that there is nothing here in Ireland.” 

She has contacted Irish cancer groups and Health Minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill. 

Ms Ryan was frustrated to see the Irish Cancer Society's €5m pilot project targeting this cancer only covers some patients around Dublin.

“So if you’re from Castletownbere and you’ve pledged money to the society throughout your life and you are at risk of a lung cancer diagnosis, you can’t travel to Dublin — you have to belong to this cohort of doctors,” she said.

'Everyone thinks it's down to smoking'

Samantha Vaughan, a non-smoker, was diagnosed at 48 and travels from Laois to Cork University Hospital for treatment.

“There is no awareness, I had no idea I could have it. My symptoms were put down to long covid the whole time,” she said.

“Now when I look back, I had hoarseness, I had fatigue, shortness of breath and if I had known the signs it would have meant going more quickly to the doctor.” 

She added: "Everyone thinks it's down to smoking and because you don't smoke, they think it can't be cancer." 

Seeing a white ribbon across social media would alert people, she feels. 

“I just can’t understand why no-one gets behind it,” she said. 

Gillian Ryan, right, and Samantha Vaughan at a ball hosted by Breakthrough Cancer Research in 2024.

“Lung cancer is the biggest killing cancer but it’s not spoken about as much as other types of cancer.” 

A HSE spokeswoman said: “The White Ribbon Project is an international grassroots movement aiming to raise awareness about lung cancer, promoting the message that "anyone with lungs can get lung cancer". 

“Evidence supporting the effectiveness of public awareness campaigns in altering health behaviours or outcomes is limited.” 

It ran an early diagnosis campaign in north Dublin which has 13% of annual cases. 

She added while 97% of cases affect people aged 50 or older, “it is particularly distressing for patients, their families and their communities when they receive a cancer diagnosis at any age, and most certainly at a younger age". 

The Irish Cancer Society hopes the Dublin project will “in time” lead to a free national lung check programme. 

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Steve Dempsey, Advocacy & Communications director, said they have run awareness campaigns on "knowledge of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer and to promote early detection”.

The Marie Keating Foundation was unavailable for comment.

The World Health Organisation recently warned the proportion of non-smokers diagnosed with lung cancer is rising.