Blogger Niamh Flanagan – who had been documenting her fight with cancer and fundraising for treatment – has died.
She was just 20 and passed away on Thursday.
My heart hurts. I’ve followed Niamh Flanagan’s journey since she started her blog at the beginning of her diagnosis not that long ago. Rest In Peace you beautiful soul 😞💔
— Aileen (@aileenmcgxo) March 29, 2018
A post on her Facebook page on Friday announced:
“Our hearts are broken. Yesterday evening our beautiful Niamh passed away. She fought the most courageous and brave battle the whole way to the end.
“Through her blog she touched the hearts of so many far and wide and she taught us all to appreciate what we have.”
In her final post on Niamh’s Journey There – which is dated March 2 – the Sligo-native writes:
“Unfortunately, since I last wrote a blog post, things have massively changed. The front line of treatment (Chemotherapy) did not shrink the tumour. The tumour had been continuing to grow while I was on the chemo. This meant there was no point in continuing with it.
“Why go through the symptoms and side effects if they are doing nothing only harm. No thank you! I’d had enough of that poison pumped into my body.”
https://twitter.com/whitemoosecafe/status/979480624275906560
She adds:
“The consultant explained how they had chosen and used the best and strongest front line option for my tumour. She said how she had gone above and beyond to get the best treatment she could for my type of tumour. She had been in touch with some very knowledgeable people, who would have done nothing different to what she had chosen to go with.
“I just got extremely unlucky with the location of the tumour. Plus there’s the aggressiveness of it… I got the short straw for sure here.”
Niamh had a rare bone cancer called osteosarcoma of her pelvis. Last year, she raised more than €25,000 to help with her treatment in Birmingham and Dublin.
TV presenter Doireann Garrihy was among those on Friday paying their respects. On Instagram, she wrote:
“My heart breaks to hear that Niamh Flanagan lost her battle with cancer last night. I met Niamh back in November and in one way or another, she has crossed my mind every day since.
“The day I met her she was up in Dublin with her parents for serious treatment, but all she wanted to talk about was how nice it was to browse the shops and spend time with her Mom and Dad.
“Her positivity, strength and will to fight was like nothing I’d seen before. From the day I met her, she became my daily reminder that no matter how bad your situation might be, only you are in control of how you deal with it. She fought to the very end with a smile on her face. Rest In Peace Niamh. You were someone truly special.”
Niamh first felt ill a year ago when she began experiencing a sharp pain on and off in the lower left side of her stomach.
From April 2017, she then started to get bad back pain – pain which escalated quite quickly and started to spread down her leg. She began to get regular massages in the hope that would help, however, during a family holiday to Portugal Niamh was in agony. “It was the holiday that showed my family exactly how much pain I had been in,” she later reflected.
Niamh suspected she might have a bad case of sciatica or a bulged disc and booked in an MRI and physio. However, with her daily state becoming unbearable, she went to Sligo General on July 5 for a CT scan; it was then that it was discovered that she had osteosarcoma.
RIP, beautiful Niamh.
