“What Is One Life Worth?” Terminally-Ill Irish Woman Shares Her Story Through Anonymous Blog

A terminally-ill woman from Kerry has decided to tell her story, which involves choosing between eating and receiving treatment, through an anonymous blog.

The mother-of-two, who lost her own mother to cancer, started sharing her experience after hearing her diagnosis and being told she only had months to live.

But her fears don’t start and end with cancer. She struggles to live from day to day and worries about the legacy she will leave her daughter.

She asks: “What is one life worth?”

                                     

Her first diary entry, posted on September 5th, begins: “What do you do when your closer to fifty than forty, have a daughter waiting anxiously on her leaving cert results, visit the doctor with a mild complaint and get told you have months to live? [sic]”.

She explains that, having been made redundant two years ago, she has been struggling on jobseeker’s allowance ever since and that she is not concerned about how she will spend the rest of her days but rather what she will leave her daughter.

Having to choose between travelling to get treatment and lying in order to get food supplement drinks for her and her daughter to live on are just a few of the obstacles she faces. 

Things get worse when she's told she no longer qualifies for jobseeker’s and that it will take time for the disability allowance to come in. 

After more struggling and difficult decisions, she cuts off her hair and gets word from the doctor who treated her mother. He gives her hope that with the right treatment she could have a few more years.

Unfortunately, she is then told that there is nothing he can do. That, along with vomiting and forms from the bank, leaves her with no hope. She writes: "I have no hope now, nothing to focus on, except dying." 

In her latest post, uploaded this week, she explains that she is now focusing on plans for her funeral, something that her 18-year-old daughter is helping her with.

Already the blog has reached thousands of people and has received a lot of support. You can read the full entries at whatwillbemylegacy.wordpress.com here or show your support on the Facebook page here.

(We'd also like to say a huge thank you to Karen Ahern who sent this to us on Facebook.)