Terry Prone: We search for the right words to describe the anguish at Creeslough but we won't find them

'No warning. No time to sort anything. Just the exigent summons: come quickly, because you might be able to help. Come quickly even if you can’t help. Come quickly because one of your own might be there'

a view of the Applegreen petrol station in Creeslough, Co Donegal where 10 people died in an explosion on Friday. Picture: Joe Dunne 

Twenty-five years ago, the cancer diary was an astonishing arrival on our bookshelves. People’s tales of the Big C and their day-to-day experience of it. 

For so long, cancer was spoken of in whispers, as if out loud acknowledgement of its presence would make it more real, empower it in some way to be more vicious. Or maybe the reason for the silence was simpler.