A 20-year-old student from Donegal said she feels “so lucky” to be able to take part in this year’s Rose of Tralee competition having recently overcome cancer.
Donegal Rose Chloe Kennedy was diagnosed with stage two Hodgkin’s lymphoma last September while studying psychology at Maynooth University.
Ms Kennedy, who is among 32 contestants taking part in this year’s competition, said she got the “all clear” earlier this year and is due to receive the results of a final scan at the end of the summer.
The student, from Donegal town, underwent 12 sessions of chemotherapy and decided to defer her studies for a year.
“I would have a good week and a bad week /[during chemotherapy/] so during my good weeks I carried on my life as normal, went to see my friends in college, just got on with life,” she said at the Rose of Tralee launch on Tuesday.
“That’s all you can really do. Things are as good as you want them to be. If you let yourself see the good in the situation it will become good. That’s what I believe anyway.”
Ms Kennedy said she decided to take part in the competition, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, as it was “something I could direct my focus towards”. She said being selected as the Donegal Rose “didn’t feel real”. “It was like being in a bubble . . . I just feel so lucky.
“At the start I questioned, you know I’m so young, why am I here. But I just had to trust the process and trust that this is what I’m meant to be doing.”
Also taking part in this year’s competition is Arizona Rose Kayla Gray (27). Ms Gray underwent brain surgery aged 14 to treat Chiari Malformation and Hydrocephalus. She was also involved in a serious car accident seven years ago, which left her unable to walk and wheelchair bound for six months.
“All my bad luck is gone now,” she joked. Ms Gray took a DNA ancestry test after a former Rose told her “you look like you’re Irish” because of her fair skin and red hair.
“I found out I was Irish through a ‘23andMe’ test, through DNA, because my dad’s adopted and my mother’s heritage ends with my grandmother, so I really didn’t know.”
RTÉ presenter Dáithí Ó Sé said he will continue to host the show “for as long as they ask me to do it”.
“The reason why it’s different every year is you have 32 different Roses coming with different stories and different personalities. They make it easy for me,” he said.
“A term that’s thrown out around the place a lot these days is empowerment and I think is there anything more empowering than going up on stage in front of 2,000 people inside the Dome . . . and in front of the whole nation and telling your life story, warts and all.”
The Rose of Tralee festival takes place from August 23rd to 27th.
