Newbridge grandmother is new face for Daffodil Day campaign

A Co Kildare grandmother diagnosed with breast cancer is determined not to let it win, she is now the national face for the new Daffodil Day campaign.

63-year-old Stephanie Loughran, from Newbridge, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011.

She said: "I was diagnosed first in St James' Hospital. I cried my heart out for an hour. I thought okay I have cancer, but I am not going to let it get me. I have too much going on in my life."

At the time, she had two grandchildren, Amy, who is now 12, and Erin, now eight, along with her  two daughters, Lisa-Marie and Orlane.

Now she has an additional two grandsons, Joey (21months) and Joshua( three months), and a new husband, Tony, who she met while dancing in Toughers two years ago. They married at the Osprey Hotel last May.

When Stephanie first saw a lump in her breast back in 2011, she ignored it.

She said: "I found the lump, I did not do anything about it. My sister was sick at the time, I told noone. I was exhausted though, I would sit on the chair and fall asleep. I was zapped."

Once she was diagnosed in 2011, she began chemotherapy and then radiotherapy. She now takes one tablet daily.

She said:"It broke my heart telling my sisters in the Cayman Islands and Australia. The fear in my daughters' eyes was the worst part."

Stephanie attributes a huge part of her recovery to the assistance and support from her neighbours who brought her to the hospital and cooked her dinner.

She said: "Having cancer really makes you realise who your good friends are."

As Daffodil Day 2016 is launched, cancer survivors and volunteers with the Irish Cancer Society are calling on the public to help fight the cancer epidemic in Ireland.

The number of people getting cancer is increasing in Ireland with one in three people getting cancer in their lifetime. Cancer continues to visit almost every home in Ireland. The harsh reality is that we are experiencing a cancer epidemic, as this year alone more than 40,000 people will get cancer, this means that over 100 people every day will hear those words ‘you have cancer.