'Am I scared? I am absolutely terrified': Cork mother waiting for crucial lung cancer scan result

Non-smoker Gillian Ryan is calling for increased funding and more information around lung cancer as she works with the Marie Keating Foundation to highlight Lung Cancer Awareness Month

Gillian Ryan: 'More and more young women and men who never smoked a day in their lives are being diagnosed with this cancer.'

The stigma around lung cancer is “appalling and unnecessary”, a Cork mother has said, as the disease leaves her terrified of being taken from her children.

Gillian Ryan has been receiving treatment since being diagnosed in 2021 at just 40 years of age. This month, she faces a crucial scan. 

“I have been having six-monthly scans for the past few years and at my most recent scan in April 2024, I was told a nodule has been growing in my lower lobe for over a year,” she said.

“Unfortunately it was not reported by the radiologist until now, which meant it has doubled in size.” 

She and her family in Bandon will make a plan for what comes next after this repeat scan.

“Am I scared? No, I am absolutely terrified,” she said.

Terrified of leaving those I love too soon. I try to remain positive and most days I am but in the dead of night when the quietness is deafening the thoughts creep in like water on a sinking ship and it leaves you gasping for air.

Life for the avid runner and non-smoker has already changed, she explained: “I can no longer run, or work out due to my lung being removed.”

'Lung cancer has very poor survival rates, it gets minimal funding and the stigma that surrounds it is appalling and unnecessary.'

She says more information and faster early detection are key to making more survivors of this cancer.

“Lung cancer has very poor survival rates, it gets minimal funding and the stigma that surrounds it is appalling and unnecessary,” she said.

“More and more young women and men who never smoked a day in their lives are being diagnosed with this cancer.” 

Looking back at those weeks around her 40th birthday in 2021, she said while her life was very good she knew something was wrong.

“I went from running 10k most days and working out four or five times a week to barely being able to make it up a flight of stairs without needing a break,” she said.

“I nourished my body with healthy foods, and I didn't abuse it. I was proud of the body I had; it just wasn't working for me as well as it had been.” 

She was completely unprepared for the devastating diagnosis, with no history of lung cancer in her family.

“I died there and then,” she said. 

“My carefree, invincible, amazing, beautiful happy life was all taken away by those three words. You have cancer.” 

As well as her own trauma, she described how in telling her family: “I felt so guilty, guilty to bring this horrible news to them, guilty that they were now affected by cancer too, it wasn't just me.” 

She is working with the Marie Keating Foundation, which is marking Lung Cancer Awareness Month for November. 

While tobacco smoking accounts for about 85% of lung cancers, between 10% and 15% of lung cancers in Western countries occur in non-smokers.

Marie Keating Foundation chief executive Liz Yeates said: “Anybody with lungs can get lung cancer. It's time to focus on support, not judgement”.

The charity also renewed its call for the Government to introduce a national lung cancer screening programme. This would allow for earlier detection in the way breast cancer, for example, is screened for already.