Ahead of her participation in Relay for Life Donegal, local woman Jennifer McCosker talks about when cancer came into her life four years ago.

There is no good time to battle serious illness.

No good time to be told you have breast cancer and must face into the relevant treatment.

But when Jennifer McCosker was given the devastating news, the spectre of Covid had arrived menacingly into the world to add to the uncertainty and worry she and countless others were experiencing – truly the worst of times for those coping with disease, coming to terms with it, and the implications of the coronavirus.

“After I got the news of my breast cancer, a friend came up to see me and we couldn’t even hug. It was such a lonely time for so many,” reflects Jennifer who is a native of Buncrana but has been living in Letterkenny since 1984.

The first hint that anything was wrong emerged when she was experiencing a pain in her breast. “I had it for about two months and never had it looked at.

“But eventually I went to have the pain investigated and it was then that they found the cancer.”

Ironically, despite having been given the all clear, she still has that pain.

Her initial scheduled appointment at the clinic had to be cancelled as she had been a close contact at work at a time when Covid restricted so much movement.

Eventually she was given an appointment date on New Year’s Eve. “I wasn’t told then but I had a fair idea.

“I mind coming home from the hospital that day and sitting in the house and I thought, is this what life is all about?”

It was at the beginning of February that she was called for an appointment and this time was told to bring someone with her.

“I knew then that the news wasn’t going to be good.”

But on that day, as her doctor spoke to her and her sister sat in the room, a strange occurrence. “My sister was behind him and as he was talking, I wasn’t actually in the room. I was up above him and I could see him and her and I could see myself. And I remember saying to someone about it afterwards and they said I had gone through an out of body experience.

“I could hear the doctor talking and I could hear myself talking – it was a weird sensation.”

It was February before Jennifer had her operation and in May of that year underwent radium treatment in Derry. “I had just a week of it but you hear people who have to endure it for much longer sessions.”

She found it a very tiring experience. “I drove in for the first couple of days but then it became too much.”

At the time, Jennifer had not been aware of the organisation, Cancer Care West. “There I was living in Letterkenny but I didn’t know about it. Had I known, it would have made a big difference.”

Following the radium treatment, she was put on medication, some of which didn’t agree with her. “There was a lot of chopping and changing with the medication but it’s been fine since.”

She has undergone a stomach operation and had a hysterectomy, neither of which was cancer related. “I suppose that’s a bonus,” she reflects.

She attends for a mammogram and a check-up every year for five years since her diagnosis. “But next year I won’t have to have the check up.”

When you talk with Jennifer McCosker – she works as a Special Needs Assistant and lives with her son, Sean, who has Down Syndrome – you find much laughter peppering the conversation.

But invariably at the back of her mind there is that shadow that loomed into her life four years ago.

‘Sometimes, I ask, what if, but you can’t live your life like that. There are always people worse off and people getting that news every day of the week.”

People who, for instance, participate in the annual Relay for Life event.

She recalls attending the first ever Relay for Life in Donegal back in 2012. “I went along to it just out of curiosity and then after my diagnosis, it was very much on my bucket list.

“And then I was standing at the closing of last year’s Relay, and said to those with me that I was going to do it this year.”

And will, she maintains, wear the purple tee-shirt that represents the mark of the survivors. Jennifer has organised a team for the event with the catchy name of Happy Feet. “I called it that because I’m never off them!.

“Of course, I’ve been wondering since, what have I let myself in for!,” laughs the affable mother of three.

“I suppose my biggest concern is where am I going to get a gazebo.”

The team has organised a number of fund-raisers including selling tickets for a hamper at Simpsons Supermarket on Good Friday “We’re also thinking of having a coffee morning and have a few other ideas floating around.”

Jennifer is looking forward to the Relay for Life experience even if she is coming at it from a much different perspective than when she first attended it.

“Apart from everything else, it’s a great social event.”