Irish woman recalls being diagnosed with cancer ahead of Daffodil Day

OVER two years ago, Courtney Smith’s world was turned upside down after she was diagnosed with cancer. Every time she came back from chemotherapy, her dog, Stitch, was always there to welcome her. Ahead of Daffodil Day, we caught up with Courtney and her furry best friend — in a bid to raise awareness.

Strolling through People’s Park in the city, the Rhebogue native recalls how it all started.

“I fainted and I had a concussion, so I went to the hospital and they found an infection but they didn't know what it was. After that, I had a viral infection from February 2022 onwards.

"I was sick every day for months. We thought it was Covid, but all my tests were negative. I had a cough that wouldn't go away, night sweats, I was losing weight, the whole lot, but I thought nothing of it. We found out there was an infection in my blood, but we didn’t know anything about that,” Courtney explains.

One day, the 23-year-old walked into Laya Health and Wellbeing Clinic on Ennis Road.

Five days later, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma - a cancer of the lymphatic system.

“They did tests on me and diagnosed Hodgkin's. I went to UHL then for oncology and I had a biopsy and that said I had stage three Hodgkin's Lymphoma,” she recalls.

“I had to do egg retrieval, go up and down to Dublin and Cork to do IVF, I had to inject myself then with hormones just to get my eggs, if I wanted to do fertility in the future.”

After all that, Courtney started chemotherapy, which she finished in December 2022. She recently celebrated being “nine months cancer free.”

But because of the chemotherapy, her bones are now brittle.

“The only thing though is I now have osteoporosis. It's like my bones are brittle and I had a fracture in my back.

“So now I have to inject myself every day to help build up my bones again basically.

“ I got that from the chemo. It's been tough going,” she says with a slight smile.

When she was diagnosed, Courtney was in her last year of college.

But despite her sickness, she still graduated in digital marketing from LIT.

“It was so scary because I didn't know what was wrong with me. I was sick every day but I still went into college, got my degree. But we just didn't know what was wrong with me and then just to find out I had cancer was just crazy,” Courtney says.

As we make our way through the park, her maltichon, who was crowned Nose of Tralee 2023, happily leads the way.

Throughout chemotherapy, Stitch kept Courtney company.

“He came into my life, I think, when I was one month into chemo. I wasn't doing well because my hair was coming out, and I just didn't feel great in myself at all. But he made the experience so much better. I felt like I didn't even have cancer with him around,” she smiles.

“When I came home from chemo, he was just there to greet me. He knew I was sad and he'd make me feel better.

“I had to shave my head because it was coming out, and Stitch was eating it all. So I just said, ‘I have to shave, I'm going to do that for him’”, she laughs.

Even though she is cancer free, Courtney still suffers from a lot of anxiety - and is afraid cancer could come back. “You dread it coming back. I go back every three months for tests, you dread those every three months going back if something was to show up.

"I'm safe at the moment, but I just feel very paranoid as well. I’m afraid of it coming back. You’d be afraid of getting a cold, thinking it's back,” she says.

“I still get on with my life though, I don’t let it take over.”

As Daffodil Day is this Friday, March 22, Courtney has one message for others, who might be struggling with an undiagnosed illness or a diagnosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

“I never heard of it before. When I was told I had it, I had to look it up straight away. No one copped it, it was very scary. A lot of young people are getting it too, so, considering that I was 21 at that time, and there's younger people getting it, and they don't know they have it until they actually get something sourced.

“If I didn't walk into the Laya Clinic that day, I don't know where I'd be. I wasn't being listened to outside of there by other professionals. If you don't feel right in your body, or if you don't feel well, just advocate for yourself. You’re the one that knows your body more than anyone else.”