Lynsey Bennett has shared the heartbreaking realities of her terminal cancer diagnosis as she prepares to leave for Germany to undergo a new treatment.
The mother-of-two was told by doctors last year that she had just six to eight months to live but she has since left medics amazed by her progress.
The Longford native revealed that her tumours have recently grown and that she has "lots of bad days" while living with cervical cancer.
However, she is hopeful that travelling to Germany for treatment similar to that which she underwent in Mexico will have a positive impact on her health.
"I'm feeling good but obviously I have lots of really bad days and I often have bleeding from my bowel and lots of pain but sitting here right now, I'm having a good day since I woke up this morning thankfully," she told Virgin Media's Ireland AM programme on Tuesday.
She described the treatment in Mexico as "lifechanging" and she felt like she got some of her "power" back.
"I got to spend over a year now making memories and being able to get up in the morning and get things done that I never thought was going to be possible," Lynsey said.
"I saw the reports of how I should be in a wheelchair and eventually be bed-bound and minded and to still be here over a year on and to be good is mindblowing, I can't believe it.
"But don't be deceived that my life is perfect, it most certainly isn't."
On her current health situation, she added: "Technically my cancer is now acting in the way it should have when I got my prognosis back last year.
"Amazingly I've had a year where I've got that cancer to hold still, which should have been impossible.
"I don't know whether my body got such a shock with everything I was doing."
The CervicalCheck campaigner says she does her own research on potential medical trials but also gets sent advice and links from her thousands of followers online.
She also shared the heartbreaking reality of living with cancer while having two young children.
From 5.30am until 7.30am, Lynsey does two hours on machines to help her condition before her eldest daughter Hayley wakes up in order to shield her from the constant reminder that her mother has cancer.
However, the eight-year-old is often concerned about her mother's health and worries that she might die at any time.
Lynsey's youngest daughter, Zoe, attends boarding school just 25 minutes away from home which the young mum says gets her "into a routine where I'm not in her life every day".
She will depart for Germany soon for the new treatment and is hopeful Hayley can fly over during the month-long stay.
As Lynsey can't travel on a plane due to clot risks, she must instead travel to the EU country by spending 18.5 hours on the ferry and 15 hours on trains.
The treatment will be similar to that in Mexico, but until she actually experiences it, Lynsey didn't want to go into a lot of detail about what it might entail.
"They're kind of outside the box treatments, they're not the conventional ones we do here," she said.
"I don't want to go into too much more detail because I won't know until I try the extra ones."
The main goal is for her life to have quality over quantity and for her kids to spend time with her while she is herself, Lynsey added.
