Kilkenny businesswoman on living with multiple myeloma – ‘I am the luckiest person in the world’

Since then, the Kilkenny businesswoman and mother-of-four has represented Ireland in her age category in the European and World Duathlon Championships, coming an incredible fifth and tenth place respectively.

An avid cyclist, Mags completed the challenging Raid Pyrenees cycling event which consists of cycling the length of the Pyrenees mountains, a feat which took 100 hours of cycling with around 11,000 metres of climbing over four-and-a-half days, despite undergoing a bone-marrow transplant about 12 months prior.

Last year, Mags took on the tricky climb to Mount Everest Base Camp with her husband Ger in tow.

If those achievements weren’t impressive enough, Mags did it all while underdoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer.

Mags, who is a firm believer that “goodness comes out of everything”, refused to allow multiple myeloma steal her goals and aspirations. Instead she used it to spur her on as she achieved more in three years than the majority of people achieve in a lifetime.

The 59-year-old explained that life is full of challenges and obstacles, but it is not these obstacles that define you, but the way you overcome them.

For Mags, she inherited her resilience and determination from her mother. Following the death of Mag’s father when she was 12 years old, Mags watched as her mother raised her and her nine siblings, including a baby her mother gave birth to two months after her husband’s death.

Mags has taken that resilience and determination with her throughout her life and applied it to her career as a businesswoman running Goatsbridge Trout Farm in Thomastown with her husband, Ger. She also applied it to her sporting career when at the age of 51 she decided that she wanted to wear the green vest and represent Ireland in duathlons – a secret ambition she told no one about except for her coach.

But most importantly, that resilience and determination is what kept her both mentally and physically strong during the cancer diagnosis and the impending treatments, which allowed Mags to continue running the business and also pursue her goal of representing Ireland.

It was three years ago when Mags first developed a pain in her shoulder. Thinking not much of it, Mags went to see her physiotherapist as she had guessed she had pulled a muscle while training.

However, when the pain did not go away, Mags booked an appointment with her GP who took bloods and then referred her onto Gary O’Toole, a bone cancer specialist.

“I hadn’t told anyone at this stage other than my husband, my coach and my two friends, one who is a pharmacist and the other one who is a GP,” explained Mags. “I hadn’t told my kids because I wanted to wait until we had a definite diagnosis for what was wrong and I didn’t want to worry them.

“I actually remember that it was my son’s 21st birthday in the weeks leading up to my appointment with Garry O’Toole. I still remember the stress I felt on his birthday.

“I was watching the banter between my four children and the joy and the fun as they were having birthday cake and giving out presents and I was standing there, trying to hide the strain I was feeling.

“People talk about having the weight of the world on their shoulders and I now understand what they mean by that. You are almost bent over with the mental strain that obviously manifests itself physically.”

It was Gary who first diagnosed Mags with cancer. “Gary sat me down and said ‘look Margaret, you have cancer’. But he explained that I was very lucky that my GP noticed something was not right because most other GPs would have missed it. If it hadn’t of been picked up quick enough it could have led to liver damage or more bone damage so I instantly realised I was very lucky.”

Mags was then referred onto haematologist, Brian Hennessy, who unfortunately had some more bad news in store.

“Initially, it was thought that I had plasmacytoma, which is a form of blood cancer. How it was described to me is that I would only need radiation as it is like a smouldering of multiple myeloma. In other words, it has the potential to turn into multiple myeloma, but it hadn’t gone that far yet.

“However, after I had a bone biopsy, Brian broke the shocking news to me that it was in fact full-blown multiple myeloma.”

As advised by Brian, Mags never turned to Google to read up on her cancer as every patient is different and no two cases are the same. Instead, she decided to “not stress the things she couldn’t control” and “live day-by-day without worrying about what the future would hold”.

“Brian gave me a great piece of advise when I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma three years ago and to this day I have never forgotten it. He told me to ‘live your life around this, don’t live this around your life’.”

With this advise in hand, Mags realised that this diagnosis of multiple myeloma, although incurable, did not mean she would have to change the way she was living her life because multiple myeloma is treatable. She could remain being a strong businesswoman, a determined athlete and a loving mother and wife. All she had to do was maintain a positive mindset, take a small step back from her business to allow herself some time to focus on her treatment, and adjust her training regime to allow for recovery after treatments such as bone marrow transplants. In order to resume a sense of normality, Mags still continued to train while undergoing chemotherapy.

“My coach, Martin Kirwan who runs Focus on Fitness, has been amazing throughout all of this. He was the second person I told about my diagnosis after my husband.

“I trust Martin so much. I put my life in his hands when I started training with him and I certainly put my life back in his hands when I realised I had cancer.

“I remember asking him during the first few days after my diagnosis if I would ever run or cycle again and he said ‘yes you will Mags’. He then told me to put on my shorts, go outside, sit on the bike and just turn my feet in the pedals. Even going through those motions was a massive help for me.”

Mags added: “Subsequently, I would say sport has been a huge part of my recovery, my mental health and my physical health. I honestly believe I am doing as well as I am because of my mental and physical fitness from sport and keeping active. I am a firm believer that exercise is medicine.”

Mags knows she has no control over the future or how well she will respond to treatments. But the one thing she can control is her attitude and her mindset.

“People look at me with their funeral faces and their heads tilted sideways and ask, ‘how are you?’ and I look back at them with my funeral face, which is a smile, and I say ‘I am great, how are you?’.

“I smile to myself because I know how lucky I am. I am the luckiest person in the world and in response people ask me, ‘Margaret you have cancer, how can you be the luckiest person in the world?’ but I have more than most people to be grateful for, I really do believe that.

“I pinch myself everyday. My family, husband and friends are amazing, I have a great business which is going really well, I have my fitness and my sport and I had a great upbringing.

“I genuinely am so lucky and I have had such an amazing life.”

September is blood cancer awareness month and this year, Multiple Myeloma Ireland is running its inaugural ‘Miles for Myeloma’ event which is taking place for the month of September.

Until September 30, walkers, runners, cyclists and swimmers from all over Ireland are clocking up miles to help raise money for Multiple Myeloma Ireland, a voluntary organisation set up to help patients and their support network better understand their disease and to ensure patients get access to the best care, support and treatment possible. Raising awareness about multiple myeloma is also a core goal for the organisation who has supported countless patients and their families throughout Ireland, such as Mags Kirwan and her family.

To donate to Mags Miles for Myeloma fundraiser please click here