A CORK WOMAN who has been battling terminal cancer since 2014 has received some amazing news for Christmas – she is finally in total remission.
Anne Herlihy was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in September 2014. She received a terminal diagnosis and never expected to be told she could be in remission.
Speaking to C103′s Cork Today earlier today, Herlihy told presented Patricia Messinger that she began taking a new HSE-funded drug last month to battle her cancer.
Those taking the drug can get up to 30 side effects. Herlihy told Messinger that she ended up very ill after beginning the new treatment, suffering from up to 15 side effects.
Herlihy was sent for a scan last week following the past month of poor health.
On Monday, she received the results of the scan – and to her surprise, it revealed that she is now in total remission.
“It was the very last thing I was expecting to hear because my cancer marker had been rising slowly. I wasn’t feeling very well at all and this is why the scan was performed,” Herlihy said.
Herlihy received the good news from her oncologist through text. In total shock, she immediately handed her phone over to her husband PJ to read because she “didn’t know whether she was seeing things or not”.
“The two of us were looking at each other. We were standing in the middle of the kitchen and we didn’t know how to react,” Herlihy said.
My granddaughter who’s making her communion in April started jumping, hopping and dancing around the place. She said ‘I told you that you’d be there for my communion’.
Herlihy has stayed positive throughout her battle. She has kept a bucket list, which she has been making her way through.
One item on her bucket list was to renew her wedding vows with her husband, which she has already done.
Another was to sing with singer Tommy Fleming. She performed with Fleming twice on television on RTÉ One.
To Herlihy’s surprise, Fleming joined in on the on-air conversation on C103.
Speaking to Messinger, Fleming said: “I’m shocked in a lovely, brilliant way. Ann was never defeated and she was never going to be, even when I met her first a couple of years ago.
I just think it’s brilliant, brilliant news. What a Christmas present, what a great way to end a year and what a great beginning. It’s like a new beginning.
“It’s a gift that money can’t buy.”
Herlihy plans to have a quiet, simple Christmas at home with her family – celebrating this week’s positive news.
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