Tipperary cancer survivor urges people to get checked for the disease as she plans busy Daffodil Day on Friday

Tipperary town woman Yvonne Kelly is a cancer survivor who is totally committed to helping others fight the disease.

She had breast cancer ten years ago and had both breasts removed.

Now she is doing what she can to help people avoid the disease and help those who have it to fight it.

This Friday she will be on duty in Tipperary once again selling daffodils for the Irish Cancer Society.

“It has been running in the town for twenty to twenty five years and many of those involved were getting on in years and were looking for new recruits so that's how I got involved”, she says.

And Yvonne is very aware of the huge impact that cancer can have, expecially in her home town.

“We have had a lot of cases in Tipp town and a lot of people have died since Christmas”, she points out.

Yvonne would love to see more preventative action to stop cancer striking in the first place.

She is a strong advocate of people getting checked out, and has had first experience of that in her own family.

“I got my daughter Karen checked out and she had the cancer as well. She was only forty two at the time. She's fine now but if she hadn't been checked out you  would wonder what might have happened”, Yvonne points out.

And she recalls how she herself was first diagnosed.

“There were ads on the radio at the time about having a mammogram. I had one before that but decided to have it done again.

“I went to the South Infirmary in Cork to have it done and it showed up.

“I had always said that I would have my breast removed if I was diagnosed with some sort of cancer. I actually had both of them removed and then had reconstruction. I was fine after that and I wasn't really sick. And thankfully I have been fine since”.

 She now believes that everyone should get checked out and people should have no concerns as all the medical staff carrying out the checks are very sympathetic and understanding.

She now devotes considerable energy to Daffodil Day in Tipperary and remarks at how generous people are.

“We can collect up to €18,000 in one day. We have a great band of collectors but we need more f resh daffodils for Friday.

“We made €800 in one hour at the launch of Daffodil Day recently. People are very generous but the more free daffodils we get, the more we can sell to raise the money”.

In Tipperary, an average of 1,186 people are diagnosed with cancer annually. 

Money raised on Daffodil Day funds  services to ensure they are supported, including 103  patients  receiving 470 nights of care through the  Night Nursing service