Teen who survived cancer says radiographer ‘cried during scan’
A cancer survivor has remembered how one of the doctors who treated her began crying halfway through a procedure.
Molly Cuddihy says she was 15 years old when she learnt she had a rare form of bone cancer.
During a scan performed by a consultant ahead of her diagnosis, she recalled how the radiographer broke down in tears looking at the results.
Cuddihy later went on to undergo chemotherapy at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow, just as she was preparing for her National 5 exams.
She said: ‘That was all taken away from me in less than a minute. Everything falls away.
‘There are so many parts of your life that it reaches into and affects.
‘It’s so much more than just a cancer diagnosis.’
She made the comments while speaking of her experiences with Radio Therapy – a candid new podcast, targeted at young people, covering such difficult themes as mental health, body image and mortality.
While Cuddihy has since completed her treatment, it has left her with irreparable liver damage and in need of a kidney transplant.
Speaking with BBC Scotland News of her contribution to the podcast, she said: ‘There’s things that I have said on the podcast that they have never heard me say before and they have lived it with me.
‘It’s almost like letting people in on a secret.’
Others have had similarly cathartic experiences speaking with people on the program.
Mairi MacLean, 24, is currently receiving her seventh treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
She has spoken to the podcast about how the concept of ‘body neutrality’ helped change her perspective on how social media made her feel about her appearance.
She explained the idea as being ‘at peace with your body, not consuming energy in loving or hating it.
‘It is a vessel that is trying hard to survive each day, whether you have an illness or not, and that is truly remarkable.
‘My body will fluctuate and change over and over again but I am at peace with that because I admire the strength and perseverance of it.’
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