The Story of Sean Martin 

Getting a funny look from your daughter across the table as you eat your breakfast is an unusual start to someone’s experience with cancer. Thankfully for Sean Martin from Co. Roscommon this look lead to his diagnosis, which could have gone unnoticed until things were much more serious. Sean explains how his daughter Oonagh, a psychiatric nurse living in Melbourne, noticed his difficulty in swallowing while home on a holiday in the Summer of 2023. Despite Sean’s pleas that he was absolutely fine, Oonagh made an appointment for him to see his GP and soon he was having a series of tests and results which lead to a diagnosis of oesophageal cancer. “I was completely blindsided” Sean remembers. “I had no major symptoms, I was very active and healthy, and I looked after my diet and general fitness. So this was a real shock for me and my family.” The oncology team, lead by Professor Gregory Leonard, determined that surgery to remove Sean’s tumour was difficult and risky given it’s location close to major organs. Instead from October to the end of January Sean went through 9 chemotherapy and 28 radiotherapy sessions. It was gruelling but effective and Sean is now recovering and doing well.

With the diagnosis Sean and his family were thrown into a whole new world of doctors, treatments, side-effects and a massive change to their lifestyle. Sean speaks movingly about the importance of the support he received from his wife Kathleen, his four children, Colm, Paul, Cathy and Oonagh and eleven grandchildren. “Without them I would be in a very different place. Even the grandchildren played their part as they kept my spirits up on the hardest days. Also the wide support I received from friends, colleagues, my GAA family and so many others meant a huge amount to me. The postman was worn out delivering cards!”

Another important source of support was Cancer Care West in Galway. The charity owns Inis Aoibhinn, a 33 bedroom facility next door to the new Radio-Oncology facility at University Hospital Galway (UHG). Sean stayed there Monday to Friday while going through his radiotherapy treatment. Sean explains the importance of their services to his experience. “I was basically able to stay right next door to the radiology department throughout my sessions. My treatment was in the middle of Winter so it was great not to have to drive 75 miles a day in bad weather. The nurses there helped with everything to do with my treatment, even getting all my medications sorted, while the rest of the staff looked after all my other needs and fed me well, even though eating was not a priority for me. I could never say enough about how fantastic this support was and what a difference it made to me when I was feeling so ill. My treatment plan meant I was on both chemo and radiotherapy at the same time. This really wiped me out so to be able to just relax in my own room every day after treatment and be so well cared for was a huge bonus and definitely helped  me to tolerate the treatment better. ”

Sean has returned Cancer Care West’s kindness and hospitality since leaving their care. Having held the role of Chairman of the Referee’s Development Committee in the GAA, Sean is held in high esteem by the national panel of inter-county referees and they, along with the four provincial GAA councils, showed their support for him by fundraising and making a donation of €7,350 to Cancer Care West in his name. This amount was doubled when his daughter Oonagh, who had no real experience of running, took on a gruelling training regime and ran the Melbourne marathon and raised almost €7,500 for the charity. Soon after the local community group Keadue Tidy Towns toped it up by donating €400 from their annual 5k fun run/walk fundraiser. This meant that just over €15,000 was raised for the charity in Sean’s name. Sean concludes “I had never heard of Inis Aoibhinn or Cancer Care West before but now I want to let everyone know about the fantastic work they do. They provide all their services for free and rely heavily on fundraising and donations to make their services viable. I and many more like me are so grateful for the support and care they afforded us during such a critical time in our lives and we really want to ensure they can do that for many others in the years to come.”