The mum of Late Late Toy Show star Saoirse Ruane has told of the heartbreaking moment she had to tell her daughter of her cancer diagnosis.
Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast for childhood cancer awareness month Roseanna Ruane told of how Saoirse was diagnosed and what symptoms led them to seek medical advice.
She said: "Saoirse's story began when she was seven years old, December of 19.
"It was actually the night of the Toy Show that year where she went into A&E with what we thought was a sprain or maybe a break. And she came home that night after they examined her with a cast and crutches and what we all presumed was a broken bone.
"Two days later then, we received a phone call from orthopaedics to say that they weren't 100 per cent happy with her X-rays and they wanted her to come back in.
"So we did a full day of tests that day which resulted in them sitting us down late that evening and telling us that she either had a tumour or an infection.
"But I think from the conversation we had, everyone in that room knew that it was a tumour. We just had to wait for a biopsy to be done.
"And in the next few days, our worst fears were confirmed."
Roseanna said the family were devastated by the news and had no idea what was about to come.
She said: "We sat down that night and watched the Toy Show, and we were trying to figure out how are we going to manage to get to where we were going the following day with the crutches, and it was going to be a little more awkward.
"This is what we were thinking, but at the same time, we were saying it's only a break. It could have been worse, but there was no way we could have ever dreamt what was going to happen."
Roseanna added: "As a result of that first diagnosis, she started her chemo in December 2019, and the amputation was a question we had to go back and revisit.
"And we did in the January and February it was confirmed that she would have to have the amputation.
"She had that on the 18th of March 2020 when… the country was closing down.
"She recovered from that with time. She did ten months of intense chemo. In November of 2020, just before her appearance on the Toy Show, she got her first prosthetic leg, and then we started to get back to life.
"I suppose not get back to life because it's very important that people realise you don't get back to that life that you had. It's very different, and it always will be, but we started to come through the haze."
Sadly in May, the family received further bad news after Saoirse began complaining of pain when breathing.
Roseanna said: "In May, only four months ago, she said that she had a pain in her chest when breathing, and of course, we would be quite aware. My husband said to me you might bring her into the GP and get that looked at.
"And he said, look, you really need an X-Ray. They are all fantastic. I have to say they know what's going on. They don't second guess anything. They don't take any chances, so it was into Galway, which Saoirse was disappointed with because she knows it's a long day of tests hanging around.
"And we did. We were there for a long day of bloods, you know they were very good in fairness. They kind of kept us off the scent.
"They kept saying we're just going to get someone else to look at this because we're not really oncology are in Dublin, and we are just the backup team.
"But we were absolutely floored that evening when the doctor beckoned me outside the cubicle, and her words to me were, 'do you want to get your husband to come in?'"
Doctors discovered that Saoirse had another tumour, this time in her lung.
"The tumour was in the lung at this stage, and you know from talking to the surgeon and the consultant since we found out that she was very lucky in a way because that tumour could have been there in the lung for a long time before we'd have ever of realised but because the tumour was attached to her lung and her chest wall it was causing this pain, so it was picked up very quick I suppose," said Roseanna.
She added: "She's doing good. She's still recovering. What she had done in May was a chest wall resection and reconstruction, so it was a massive surgery that saw her in ICU for a long time, but she's coming through it.
"She's back at school. She hasn't gone back to the camogie just yet. I think we are kind of wrapping her in cotton wool a little bit, but she's very happy-go-lucky.
"We were very lucky to go to Disney World a couple of weeks ago. We all had a fantastic holiday. It's very important that we got her there. We were a year and a half waiting to do that, so I suppose we feel that that box is ticked, and we all had a fantastic time.
"I suppose we try to be positive like we use our page on Instagram Saoirse and Mama to spread awareness while we are still navigating our journey."
Asked about how she speaks to Saoirse about her illness, Roseanna said: "It's hard because you're kind of trying to get it in around your head at first, but yet she has all these questions when you're going into hospitals and meeting consultants, and she's been reviewed now a lot more closely, and they're keeping a very close eye on her going forward.
"Initially, when she went into hospital, we talked about her having a tumour because she didn't know what that meant, but we were very careful not to mention the cancer word, but we did have to within a week.
"We had to kind of tell her it was heartbreaking even telling her that she had to lose her leg.
"They're conversations that I would never wish on anyone, but when it came to the second diagnosis, the consultant kind of said, 'Tell her. Tell her, be honest with her and let your emotions out together as a family and don't try to sugarcoat it. It is what it is.' And the sooner she knew, the sooner we would all be able to get our heads around it."
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