A Dublin man will brave a 6,000m hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania this August in honour of his late fiancée.
Walkinstown native Kevin Cullen is completing the hike for the Irish Cancer Society, to "honour the spirit" of his long time partner Aoife O'Donovan.
Aoife, from Dungarvan, sadly died aged 30 in May of last year after a battle with cervical cancer. The pair met at a house party in Boston in 2012 while they were on a summer J1 and got engaged in 2018.
Read more: Family of young Dubliner who died of cancer vow to complete bucket list in his memory
Speaking to Dublin Live, Kevin explained that during the summer of 2020 Aoife experienced irregular bleeding that got worse as time went on. After an incident of severe bleeding, Aoife was brought to the Coombe for an examination.
"They found a 6cm mass on Aoife's cervix.," he said. "They were very concerned but at this stage nothing had been confirmed. But a week later we were called back in for the results of the biopsy and it was confirmed that Aoife had cervical cancer.
"It's something that I would really like to highlight, that not every type of cervical cancer will show up on a smear test. Aoife had a non-HPV type of cervical cancer.
"Initially the prognosis was relatively good. The medical team were confident that with a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy that Aoife would make a full recovery."
Aoife endured a lot of chemotherapy and radiotherapy over the coming months but in April 2021 she received the devastating news that the cancer had spread through her lymphatic system and couldn't be cured.
"It turned our world upside down," Kevin said. "I'm so proud of Aoife for how hard she fought.
"We picked ourselves up within a few days and Aoife then endured a lot of treatment to try to manage the cancer as best she could.
"Aoife battled on for another year and then she passed away on May 1, 2022."
Shortly after Aoife died, Kevin planned a fundraising cycle from Dublin to Dungarvan with friends and family for the Irish Cancer Society and raised a whopping €42,000.
"Aoife wanted to advocate for smear tests and she wanted to raise awareness about non-HPV cervical cancers," he said. "So after she passed, I wanted to be her voice and spread that awareness.
"It was absolutely incredible, people were so generous. We were really blown away, we certainly weren't expecting over €40,000."
Kevin is hoping to raise more funds for the Irish Cancer Society in Aoife's name this summer with his climb up Mount Kilimanjaro.
"I think in a lot of ways it will be great for me to get away for a little bit but also to spread more awareness and to raise some money for a good cause in Aoife's name as well."
Kevin encouraged anyone who notices any irregularities with their health to get it checked out as soon as possible. "It's just so important to detect any type of cancer early on," he said.
To donate to Kevin's fundraiser, click here.
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