By Lisa Ramsden
A DOWNPATRICK woman, whose son had just celebrated his second birthday when she received a terrifying cancer diagnosis, is giving her all to support the charity which has been her rock.
Self-titled “cancer survivor” Sara McGarvey is championing the work of the Cancer Fund for Children as a way of thanking it for its ongoing support through a really difficult journey. The mum-of-one was thrilled to welcome many supporters to a fundraiser in her hometown at the weekend to support the charity.
Sara has become one of the Cancer Fund for Children’s ‘community champions’ and her voluntary role sees her covering the Killyleagh, Crossgar and Downpatrick areas.
She is determined to raise as much awareness, and money, as she can for the fund, and “its amazing work”.
Sara marked the start of Childhood Cancer Month with Saturday’s community coffee morning in Downpatrick’s Russell Gaelic Union.
She has thanked everyone who supported the event, which raised over £600.
It was in June 2023, just 10 days after her son Michael turned two, that Sara received her diagnosis – doctors confirmed she had an advanced stage of a rare and aggressive cancer.
Aged just 34, Sara was told that she had Stage 4 Round Cell Soft Tissue Sarcoma. Cancer was growing behind her right eye, and up until just a few months before the shock discovery, Sara did not realise there was, potentially, anything wrong.
It was noticing that her eyeball was protruding that led to a series of scans and biopsies, the first of which was inconclusive. However, ongoing monitoring, including a further biopsy, led to the diagnosis. Sara underwent five different types of chemotherapy over a six-month period.
She commenced this treatment on 10 July and had to be admitted to hospital for five days each fortnight.
Intricate surgery followed, and then Sara had proton beam treatment, delivered daily over seven weeks at a hospital in England.
Sara, a social worker, said that in the days, weeks and months following her diagnosis, surgery and follow-up treatment, the toll on her family was immense.
Having been aware of the charity, Sara adds it was only when faced with her own health crisis, that she fully realised how wide-ranging and far-reaching the Cancer Fund for Children’s work is.
As she, husband Andrew and little Michael came to terms with a new way of living, the family enjoyed much-needed breaks at Daisy Lodge, the charity’s respite centre between Newcastle and Bryansford.
The facility also provided the perfect setting for a wellness retreat for Sara and her mum, Mary McCartan.
Sara said that despite his young age, Michael quickly realised that something was wrong with his mummy, and that life was very different.
She had undergone complex surgery – known as a full orbital exenteration – this radical procedure removed the entire eyeball and all surrounding soft tissues in the eye socket, including muscles, fat, nerves, and part of her sinus.
“Everything was removed, it was a major procedure, but removing the cancer was the main thing,” she said. Looking back on that chapter of her life, she readily admits “it was a really difficult time for all of us”.
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