"Nobody should face cancer alone” – Tipperary woman calls for community to go all in against cancer this Daffodil Day

Tipperary woman and cancer survivor, Bianca Cahalan is calling on her local community to go all in against cancer for the Irish Cancer Society’s Daffodil Day, which takes place on Friday, 22 March. 

In 2022, aged just 34, Bianca from Ballylusky, Co. Tipperary, was diagnosed with a rare postpartum cancer, just months after the birth of her third child. The cancer impacts 1 in 50,000 pregnancies. Reflecting on her cancer experience, Bianca only got to spend six-to-eight weeks of her maternity leave bonding with her newborn, before she was thrown into dealing with cancer diagnosis.

Bianca says:“It just baffles me really that your maternity leave can’t be deferred. For about 25 weeks of my maternity leave, I was in and out of hospitals trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with me, getting the diagnosis and then dealing with my treatment and all that entailed.”

She added: “I fully support the Irish Cancer Society’s Leave our Leave campaign to give women the right to defer their maternity leave if they get sick – these are the types of supports that the Irish Cancer Society offers and tries to forces changes on to help people affected by cancer. Because of their commitment to these campaigns, as well as their range of supports and services, I’m calling on people to go all in and get behind Daffodil Day.”

The Irish Cancer Society is there to ensure that every person affected by cancer has a place to turn to, the support they need and the hope that there will come a day when no one in Ireland dies from cancer.  

Thanks to the amazing generosity of the Irish public the Irish Cancer Society invests in groundbreaking cancer research and delivers crucial free support services for people affected by cancer, throughout Tipperary. In 2023, your generous support provided:

• 850 free lifts to bring Tipperary based cancer patients to their treatment;
• Almost 700 free counselling sessions to people living in Tipperary; and
• Over 400 nights of free Night Nursing care to allow cancer patients in Tipperary to die at home surrounded by loved ones.

Irish Cancer Society CEO Averil Power said: “Unfortunately, 1 in 2 of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. There isn’t a family in Ireland that hasn’t been touched by the disease. When Daffodil Day first began in 1986, just 3/10 Irish people survived a cancer diagnosis. Today, thanks to investment in innovative cancer research, that has doubled to 6/10 people in Ireland surviving cancer. And we at the Irish Cancer Society won’t stop until 10/10 people survive a cancer diagnosis. But we cannot do that without your support on Daffodil Day.

“The more we raise on Daffodil Day, the more we can do, and the more lifesaving research we can fund. We only receive 5% of our income from the government, so we’re urging everyone in Tipperary to Go All In this Daffodil Day 22^nd March to help us achieve a future where nobody dies from cancer in Ireland, and everyone affected by the disease has the support they need when they need it most.”

For more information about Daffodil Day visit https://www.cancer.ie/daffodilday.