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LYNDSEY CONNOLLY WAS diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in November 2013, at the age of 25.
She was in hospital with meningitis when a chest X-ray revealed the extent of her illness.
Lyndsey, from Blessington in Co Wicklow, underwent treatment in Tallaght Hospital for about seven months. She had 12 sessions of ABVD chemotherapy before being given the all clear in June of this year.
She is a co-founder of YouCan Ireland, a nationwide support service for young adults in their 20s and 30s who have or have had cancer, and their families.
The group’s mission statement is as follows:
To provide a nationwide support system for young adults with cancer, advocate for consistent and age-appropriate, respectful care that supports young adults with a cancer diagnosis, educate the public and medical profession on the experiences of young adults with cancer, and to be the face of young adult cancer.
Lyndsey says that she and others decided to set up YouCan Ireland because there is a “severe lack of services specifically designed for young adults (with cancer)”.
In early February 2015, YouCan held its first meeting at a community centre in Dublin city. In 2016, the group plans to set up meetings throughout Ireland.
A statement from YouCan Ireland recently noted: “Cancer is a disease that doesn’t discriminate. Regardless of your age, gender or creed, when it decides to take hold, life as you know it changes forever. When this happens in early adulthood, where do you turn?”
Lyndsey describes getting the all-clear as “incredible”, but says she has struggled to re-adjust to life after cancer.
It’s like feeling you can breathe for the first time again. You’re holding your breath for so long … but that’s when the second battle begins. Where do you go? You’re changed completely. It’s like you’re broken and you have to pull yourself back together, and it’s when you need people and you need support and it’s not necessarily always there.
She thinks YouCan Ireland will help fill a void and provide support to young people in similar situations to her own.
The team will be travelling around Ireland in 2016, including:
More dates are to be confirmed.
Further details about YouCan Ireland can be found here.
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but but but Poots took legal advice …… god save us
@Jim Buckley Barrett: Did you hear who he took that advice from? I’m not even kidding here, Jamie effing Bryson. The loyalist headbanger. .
@Pete Gilmartin: the Poundshop Lawyer, mar a deir Colum Eastwood. The absolute catastrophe that is the leadership of far-right Unionism, is like an elixer of youth for me today, its like drinking pure happiness. Can’t wait for this Assembly election now.
@Pete Gilmartin: Are you serious? Bryson hasn’t even passed the bar.
@Pete Gilmartin: Had to go and Google that… Seems you were kidding, Poots got his legal advice from John Larkin the former Attorney General in the North.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Yep, but Bryson claimed in a radio interview he gave it. Anything to try to make himself relevant.
@Isa: That’s it, he’d say mass…
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: No Kidding – Bryson is claiming in todays Belfast Telegraph that he had been advising Poots and the DUP with all the legal implications of the Protocol for months.
Poots said yesterday that he also received legal opinion from John Larkin but didnt clarify what that opinion was and which opinion he eventually went on before acting. Mind you, I dont think the DUP was ever in the business of taking advice from anyone.
@Angela McCarthy: that’s a scurrilous remark ! DUP take advice from Doctor No.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Bryson never passed a bar in his life, especially when Edwin in buying.
If this judicial review shows that Edwin Poots broke the law then he should suffer the consequences of his actions.
@Joe Johnson: while I agree in principle, he can say it was based on legal advice and legal advice often differs, even though what he was trying to do was a wrecking tactic, it’s probably not criminal. In any case, he hasn’t managed to be selected by his party to run in the now consequent election, so his punishment will be to live on in ignominy as one of the most incompetent politicians in the history of Ireland or Britain. And probably the World.
Playing bigoted politics to get what you what to the detriment of workers across the whole island should not be allowed happen, he somehow needs to be sanctioned
You couldn’t write what’s happening in the UK at present. Brexit is a disaster and will have long lasting negative ramifications. Throw in the DUP and Borris and the asylum starts rocking to ABBA….
There’s no one driving the red bus these days, they’re all partying down the back.
@Kevin Conway: I quote Professor Anton Muscatelli principal and vice chancellor at the University of Glasgow from 2018.
“the most unhinged example of national self-sabotage in living memory.”
I think the legal opinion that Poots received must have been given to him at an Orange Lodge, or in a pub.
@Angela McCarthy: The News Letter says he got it from John Larkin the former Attorney General in the North.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: Jamie Bryson is claiming credit for it on Twitter
@James Beattie: Forgive me for not believing Mr. Bryson.
Here it is for all unionist supporters to see, the UK government does care about Northern Ireland or even consider it as part of the union. Serious questions need to be asked by the people of NI, and in particular the six counties, if they see themselves as been part of the UK moving forward, with the likes of the DUP.
@Michael: I presume you meant to say – ” does not care” in which case I agree with you 100%
@David Abbott: yes.
@David Abbott: correct.
Well that’s embarrassing…
That’ll poots him in his place
Better call Saul…..
Pussin Poots
The Befast High Court did’nt give two hoots for Edwin Poots.
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