Each week on The Women’s Podcast, we hear from women from all walks of life who come on to talk about their lived experiences, their life stories, their passions and their challenges.
This week, it’s the turn of podcast presenter Róisín Ingle, who in October 2023 received a life-changing cancer diagnosis. This is the first time she has spoken about it on the podcast.
“I’ve spent the last year not really being fully myself on this podcast and there’s been a lot going on behind the scenes,” Ingle tells co-presenter Kathy Sheridan.
Sharing her story for the first time with listeners, Ingle says she’s “really happy about telling people and then moving forward”. “I am a little bit wary, but also excited about it too,” she adds.
It was a Thursday in late Autumn last year, when this story began.
“I was lying in my bed,” Ingle says. “I put my hand onto my left breast, just under my nipple and I felt a piece of rough skin. It wasn’t a lump, it wasn’t anything protruding, the skin just felt slightly different”.
Although she was feeling like her “normal self” and wasn’t fatigued or feeling run down at the time, the difference in skin texture was enough to cause concern. “I felt that’s different, something’s not normal”.
[ Róisín Ingle: My profound, challenging, surprisingly joyful, life-changing yearOpens in new window ]
A few weeks later, following routine tests and a biopsy, Ingle was told she had “several tumours” in her breast. Soon after, she was informed the cancer had also spread to her bones.
“It’s hard to describe when you hear news you’re not expecting to hear. It feels like your world is shifting or everything is changing, nothing’s ever going to be the same and it’s also the unknown,” she says.
In this conversation, Ingle and Sheridan discuss the shock of the diagnosis and how the subsequent weeks and months unfolded. They reflect on breaking the news to Ingle’s teen-daughters and her wider family and friends.
We also hear about the joyful parts of her year, including a proposal and a wedding with a very striking pink dress, a summer holiday that her daughters described as the best of their lives and a glorious few hours spent dancing to Taylor Swift at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
You can listen back to their conversation in the player above or wherever you get your podcasts. For more information about breast cancer visit materfoundation.ie, cancer.ie, mariekeating.ie, breastcancerireland.com, breastcancerresearch.ie
Symptoms of breast cancer include:
- A change in size or shape of your breast, such as one breast becoming larger than the other;
- A change in the direction or shape of your nipple, especially if it sinks into your breast or becomes irregular in shape;
- A change in the skin on or around the nipple such as a rash or flaky or crusted skin;
- An unusual discharge (liquid) from one or both of your nipples;
- Swelling in your breast or armpit or around your collarbone;
- A lump or thickening in your breast;
- A change in the skin such as puckering, ridges or dimpling (like orange peel) or redness;
- Constant pain in one part of your breast or armpit;
- Soreness or warmth (inflammatory breast cancer);
- A red scaly rash on one nipple, which may itch or burn (Paget’s disease of the breast);
- Breast pain alone is rarely a symptom of breast cancer.
