Cancer patients and survivors who attended the community chair yoga at the Shannon Estuary Way retreat in Ballynacally benefiting from six weeks of gentle yoga shared their experiences of the practice and their individual battles with the disease with The Clare Champion.
Lorraine White who was diagnosed with cancer in 2019 and went though her treatment during the early months of the Covid pandemic, felt that the speakers who attended every week to advise the group really helped them. She explained that after cancer, many woman are in the menopause and must also deal with all that comes with that.
With encouragement from Rosie McMahon whom she knew previously from hiking, she decided to come out to the safe and calm environment in Ballynacally which she thinks really takes that clinical environment which they are used to out of it.
Sharing her story, Lorraine said, “I was diagnosed in 2019 and it was just at the start of lockdown. I went through the first half of my treatment okay and them come March 2020 I’d the rest of my treatment thorough lockdown which was really tough.
“If you have a baby, the first thing you will do is you go to a mother and baby club, you need to know what is happening.
“You want to educate yourself around it so when you get diagnosed with cancer you want to immerse yourself in the cancer community, and even though you don’t want to, because you didn’t want the disease in the first place, you get in there and met people and then you realise you are not alone.
“I’ll never forget the first time I turned up at an Irish Cancer Society tree planting ceremony at the Fair Green in Ennis and it was the first time I could make that visual connection – anyone with a purple t-shirt on was affected by cancer, and all of a sudden I knew I was not alone.
“I was 39 at the time, I had three small children, I was fit and healthy. I knew nobody in my age bracket that had cancer; I had nobody I could turn to.
“So I turned online and as I started sharing my story online and reaching out to people, I tried to get all the information but since talking it through and meeting other people, and as the saying goes ‘one in seven of us will be diagnosed with cancer’.
“There is still that stigma around it. Walking into a centre, you are always going to be recognised as that person with cancer. I’m still Lorraine. Our families are there, they are brilliant, they are supportive but if you have not been through it you cannot understand it.”
Another woman who wished to remain anonymous said she wanted to move away from the clinical side of it and she didn’t want to be labelled or defined by the disease but at the same time, it was nice to now have a core group through the chair yoga that understand her.
She added she felt she could confide in the women. In fact, many of the women said they felt safe in the group.
Lisa McGrath (43) who was diagnosed four years ago had tried normal yoga but found the chair yoga was “super” and not intrusive, and she liked the idea that you can do the techniques afterwards and even in the car. Lisa also shared the story of her cancer journey.
“I’m metastatic so mine is incurable; I have it all the time. I am just on treatment to keep it at bay,” she said.
“It was very interesting to sit and listen to all the girls’ stories because in one way I have my story, and my journey started like the girls’ one started and I was going down the road of chemo but something showed up. Then they put it back, the date was put back and put back, and I remember I cut my hair and my sister said you could regret it now don’t cut it, and I said I am going to cut it and, and the day after cutting my hair was the day I was told something’s shown up, it’s in your bones, it’s incurable, you are not going down the road of chemo any more.
“So at that stage then my journey took a different turn to the girls journey…now I go to Galway once a month for treatment for mine… It was just good to sit with the girls and talk to them…It is just how all our journeys are so different,” she said.
Clare Mulvey from Ennis said her old schoolfriend Lorraine White introduced her to the yoga classes retreat centre which encouraged her to come out to Ballynacally.
“I had cancer in 2020, and it was May 2020 and everything was online due to Covid, and I’m not a person to be online.
“And then unfortunately I had cancer again and just finished it this year but it’s nice to hear about the things we can do, and nice to hear there’s things the second time around.” Clare also extended her appreciation to Rosie for introducing her to the practice.
Another cancer survivor who didn’t wish to be named said the practice of yoga attracted her to come to the support group. And knowing the familiar face of her friend Lorraine would be there helped encourage her to attend.
“Lorraine gathered us all about and brought us in and out – she was our taxi service,” she said.
“ I think I showed up for myself because I knew Lorraine would show up, and then meeting other people helped. It was just really refreshing.
“I’d been to so much counselling myself, and personally I suffered with anxiety and depression for a few years before this….I can safely say it is better than any counselling session I have ever had. This place needs to be shouted from the rooftop.”
“Cancer is like the train you can never get off – it is constant,” another woman who was recently diagnosed with the disease told The Clare Champion.
Rosie also set up a WhatsApp group for those who attended.
This served as a community forum as well as a hub for the women to have a place to go, and to get informed by real people as well as share their own stories.
Owing to the success of the classes, Rosie and the West Clare Cancer Centre plan to run chair yoga in January 2025 at the retreat, and will continue to offer a calming environment and a space for tea, conversation and friendly support.
Sharon Dolan D’Arcy covers West Clare news. After completing a masters in journalism at University of Galway, Sharon worked as a court reporter at the Sligo Weekender. She was also editor of the Athenry News and Views.