'It was a time I never want to face again'

MARK MOLLOY experienced a shock diagnosis in 2022 that presented him with a range of mental and physical challenges. He tells JIMMY GEOGHEGAN how he faced up to them - head on

When Trim lost the SHC final in October Mark Molloy was disappointed. Very disappointed, but he was philosophical too as he is these days about most things.

Events over the last two years have thought him to be like that. Now he doesn't get upset by a lot of things that used to annoy him in the past. Now he looks at life in a different way - and there's a good reason for that.

Two years ago at the age of just 35 Mark was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. He remembers the day well he was told he had the disease - 5th May 2022. He remembers it because it's etched indelibly in his mind.

The news that he had Leukaemia came as a severe shock and triggered months and months of turbulence, uncertainty, depression, illness, questioning, despair, tears but redemption too.

That defeat to Ratoath was one of a series of games Mark played for Trim in 2024. In fact he played in every minute of every game Trim senior hurlers played in 2024, league and championship.

The reality, that achievement is something of a miracle because the previous year he was told he would never play hurling again. He was told that by a medic who knows about such things; who is an expert in the field as it were. Mark found it impossible to take that in, to compute the information and deal with it rationally.

Instead of accepting it he decided he would use the grim diagnosis to spur him on. He turned a debilitating negative into a powerful positive.

"The consultant said I will never play hurling again, never play Gaelic football again," he recalls. "I just couldn't take that for an answer, there was a couple of falling outs between that consultant and me but I suppose ultimately she saved my life at the end of the day.

"I was driven and somehow I got back playing this year. It was brilliant just to be back playing with the lads; to put on the Trim jersey and give something back to the club who supported me when I was sick."

Not that his story of sickness and recovery is all about him, Mark, emphasis. It's as much about others, as it is about him, he repeats. More so.

It's about the people who stood with him in his darkest hour. His partner Emma Genockey, his parents Margaret and Mattie, his brothers Philip and Brian. His friends, those in Trim GAA club, the people of the Irish Cancer Society (ICS), other cancer patients, the nurses, doctors he came across, his work colleagues, his employers. Others too. So many others.

One expression of Mark's gratitude can be seen in the way he was the driving force behind the generation of €28,000 for the ICS and the Mater Hospital Foundation.

It's about too Emma's and Mark's baby daughter, Isla, who was born also just a few weeks ago. Isla's arrival was certainly a highlight. A golden moment to treasure on a journey that has had plenty of twists and turns.

DUNCANNON

Located close to Hook Head at the southern tip of Wexford, Duncannon is, if the photos on line are anything to go by, a picture-postcard kind of place endowed with a pleasant and lengthy beach. It's also a place Mark Molloy also knows better than most because he grew up there and played hurling and football for the local club, St James or 'the Jimmies' as they are also known.

He played his part in helping the Jimmies move up from the lowest level in local hurling to where they are now; "an intermediate club just below senior level," as Mark proudly puts it. His performances attracted plenty of praise - and attention. He was good enough to be selected for the Wexford minor and u-21 hurlers. In 2005 he played in a Leinster MHC final between Wexford and Dublin in Croke Park. Unfortunately, for Mark and his team-mates, the Model County lost out.

He was one of those who progressed up the ranks, turning out for the county u-21s before making it into the senior Wexford team then managed by former Tipperary player Colm Bonner. He played in a few league games in 2017 but his inter-county career was interrupted when the following year he took up an offer to play hurling in Boston. He felt he had to give it a try.

A talented footballer Mark was also selected for the Wexford u-21s and got to a Leinster final where they were defeated by Kildare.

"I was very close to getting provincial honours in football and hurling, close but no cigar," he recalled with a laugh as he sat down to talk with the Meath Chronicle in the foyer of the Trim Castle Hotel. He also won a Wexford SFC title with the Jimmies in 2015.

The hotel foyer was very tastefully festooned with Christmas decorations. The cheerfulness of the scene contrasted sharply with the harrowing story Mark told about his encounter with cancer.

That story had started in Trim where he, and his partner Emma, who is also from the town, had set up home. Mark had moved to the Meath town in 2014 when he landed a job.

The job is part a SMART project and involves him working with young people "from socially disadvantaged areas who may have got into trouble with the law," as he puts it.

"My job is to try and divert youngsters into a positive light in society rather than they going down the negative route." He cites the internet and drugs as two major rivals in his, and his colleagues,' mission.

In 2021 Emma and Mark brought their own home in Trim. Mark transferred from Duncannon and joined Trim GAA club.

Life was good.

Then bang. Everything changed.

TREATMENT

For some time Mark had suffered from headaches especially during spells of intensive training. He felt weak at times, out of breath. Somebody mentioned that he was pale. When one of these headaches proved impossible to get rid of he went to the doctor. "He said I had a chest infection, he gave me steroids and took two blood samples. I returned to work. Then the doctor rang me and said I had to go to the Mater Hospital to do a bone marrow test. To be honest I didn't even know where the Mater Hospital was."

Mark went up to Dublin aiming to be back in Trim later that day. There was training that evening. Emma joined him and they went out for something to eat before returning to the hospital to be told some devastating news.

"They told me I had leukaemia. I didn't know what leukaemia was, it was all fairly surreal after that," he recalls. "I spent the next 11 months in hospital. I went in on the 5th May 2022 and didn't leave until the end of March 2023 - except for the odd week when I would be allowed to return home."

He couldn't even open the window in his hospital ward for fear of infection. The chemo meant he lost his hair. There were plenty of other low points along the way.

Mark has no hesitation in picking out the lowest of all. "It was the summer of 2022, the weather was unreal, the boys were up in the pitch playing hurling and football. I had been appointed captain of the Trim team earlier that year. That summer I was really struggling. I had to go on anti-depressant tablets, I had to speak to a mental health nurse in the hospital, I just couldn't cope not being able to play or train.

"My brother got married in 2022 and I had organised a stag for him and I was best man. I couldn't even go to the stag, the lads were video calling me from Carrick-on-Shannon and I was in our sittingroom in Trim. It was extremely tough.

"They let me out for the wedding. I went to the ceremony but I couldn't even deliver the best man's speech. After the ceremony I had to go back to the hospital, that was extremely difficult. There were a few concerts booked I couldn't go to. It was a time I never want to face again.

"It was touch and go for me for a while mentally and that's being totally honest. They kept telling me there was light at the end of the tunnel. I kept reverting back to that. I was lucky I had enough people around me to direct me to the right place, to get me in the right frame of mind and thank God everything worked out."

He mentions how a Wickow player who had cancer contacted him and travelled up to see him, told him his story. That was special. Inspiring.

These days Mark is in a much better place, in every respect. Sure he still has to keep up the treatment but there are no lengthy visits to hospital.

Defeat in that county final hurt but there are a lot worse things then losing a big game. Life is about putting things in perspective. Mark Molloy knows that now.

MARK MOLLOY ON...

THE SUPPORT OF OTHERS WHO HELPED HIM

"My girlfriend, my parents, my brothers, a couple of really close friends and the lads from Trim GAA, they all played a role in getting me through that period and I'm so grateful to have had that support network around me. I suppose that's why I wanted to fund raise and help others because I had that support network, and I thought of the people who might not have it. That's why the services of organisations like the Irish Cancer Society are so important to be able to step in and be there for that person."

JOINING TRIM GAA CLUB

"I was always driven to be the best I could be and I couldn't ask to have transferred to a better club. They welcomed me with open arms, I can't speak highly enough of the club, the people around it, they were a real inspiration as well. When I got sick they played a massive part in getting me through the difficult patch but unfortunately this year we just came up short against Ratoath in the senior final but we would be looking forward to next year to try and turn things around, put that right.

ON-GOING TREATMENT MEASURES

"When I left the Mater Hospital my in-patient chemo was done but then I had to be on what's called maintenance chemo so I had to take a mild chemo tablet every day for two years so I'll be finished that in April 2025. Also I have to go into the Mater every three months and get lumber puncture, a spinal tap, where they bring chemo to the brain and draw out the fluid. It's a kind of injection that lets chemo into the blood stream but that's only for 10 or 15 minutes and there's no real side effect to that.

ADVICE TO OTHERS DIAGNOSED WITH CANCER

"I suppose when you hear the word cancer it's fairly frightening but you just have to stay positive and you have think you are going to beat it, stay positive, you'll have bad days but you'll have good days as well and support around you. The advice I would give is take every day as it comes, normality got taken away from me. I used to be getting upset and stressed over small things now I'm happy to be hear. You see people getting stressed but I'm like 'Is there really a need for that." I suppose unless you went through something I went through you won't take normality for granted; to get back to be able to go out with my friends, meet people, share a dressingroom with my team-mates, go to a wedding, go to functions, not worry about getting sick. Fortunately I was one of the lucky ones."