The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
THE Multiple Myeloma Ireland ‘Wild Myeloma Way Cycle’ is taking place on this Friday and Saturday, going from Limerick to Spanish Point on Friday and back the following day.
The first day will see the cyclists visit Newmarket, Lahinch, Miltown Malbay before reaching Spanish Point, and on the way back they will go through Kilmurry Ibrickane, Doonbeg, Kilrush and Bunratty.
It is seeking to raise awareness about Multiple Myeloma, which is a relatively little known disease.
“It’s a blood cancer and if you look at the Multiple Myeloma Ireland website, it says a very true thing, that most people before they get diagnosed with it, have never heard of it,” says John Lawler, who was diagnosed with it in January of 2020.
“I went into the hospital with a kidney stone, a painful enough yoke on its own. When I went in they said you have to stay overnight, and then they told me that I had Multiple Myeloma. On its own, you might say fine, but when you hear the word cancer you say ‘okay, this is a different game then’.
“Basically it’s a blood cancer, your bone marrow isn’t functioning properly, isn’t producing what it should be producing for your blood. It is incurable, it can’t be cut out or dealt with like a tumour.
“But if you were diagnosed 30 years ago you had no chance, your life expectancy was a few short years, but the treatments are improving all the time and it’s incredible what they can do now compared to then.
“Years ago you’d have a transplant if you were lucky and you’d be left alone, now they’re saying they may never transplant people because the drug treatments are so good, and there are new ones coming out all the time.”
John says the care he has received since his diagnosis has been fantastic.
“I get my treatment at the University Hospital Limerick and I got a transplant up in Galway in August 2020. I don’t have experience of healthcare elsewhere in the world but it is an absolutely fantastic service, it really is.”
He says he wouldn’t have found about it for a lot longer only for his kidney stone, and he urges anyone who gets a diagnosis to engage with Multiple Myeloma Ireland.
“It’s is a really good way of calming you down a little bit, because if you start googling things it’s a nightmare.”
John also praises Multiple Myeloma Ireland. “It’s voluntary, it’s just people giving up their time to support people with MMI. It’s a very scary thing when it starts off. The hospital support, the general support for it is phenomenal, the work that is done and the care that is given is really incredible.”
More information on the disease is available at multiplemyelomaireland.org/.
