Breast cancer survivor to help lead 10k

A 39 year-old Navan woman, who will lead Saturday's Kells Pink Ribbon Walk at one of Meath's most picturesque locations, Drewstown House, says that thanks to early detection of breast cancer, she is now looking forward to her wedding in October rather than an altogether different outcome. The historic town of Kells will turn pink for the day as what is already one of Ireland's fastest growing fundraisers, which is in aid of Action Breast Cancer, breaks the €400,000 mark. The 10k walk itself is expected to raise close to €100,000 and will add to the €340,000 total already collected in four other walks in Kells and Killaloe since 2009. Meath mother-of-two Wendy Stapleton, who will wed her long-term partner on the October Bank Holiday Weekend, says the walk is about raising funds for Action Breast Cancer but also awareness of the disease. "It's all about early detection and that's one of the messages we have been getting across in the run up to Saturday's walk. If I wasn't as vigilant as I was, I may well not be participating in this weekend's walk or even looking forward to getting married. It could have been an entirely different result for me," she said. "I found a found lump last May while I was showering and I just feared the worst. I went to straight to my GP and was sent to Beaumont Hospital where they did a biopsy and found cancerous cells and I started treatment pretty much straight away. "I was due to get the all-clear or otherwise in December and my boyfriend and I went to London the weekend before as it was a tense time, and while in London he proposed. It meant there was an even greater sense of destiny about when we came back from London as we went straight to Beaumont, with our bags from the trip, to hear the outcome of tests and thankfully it was all good. I will never have a rollercoaster of emotions over a few days like this in my life, I guess," she added. "I had feared the worst at the outset, so much so that I started a diary. It was going to be a legacy for my children if I didn't beat it. I filled three books with entries but thankfully the worst case scenario didn't materialise and here I am today, smiling from ear to ear looking forward to my wedding. To this day, I haven't even read a single line of the diary." She said that, like most women she was aware that she needed to check her breasts, but didn't pass any remarks of it. "I didn't really bother with it, I suppose I didn't know exactly how. I was in the shower washing my chest underarms and noticed a lump which felt like the cartilage at the end of your nose type of thing. It didn't feel right," Wendy added. She got it checked with her GP, Dr Seamus Kiernan in Navan. He wasn't happy about it and got her an urgent appointment with Beaumount Hospital. Monies raised from the 10k Kells Pink Ribbon Walk, which has broadcasters Bryan Dobson and Barbara McMahon plus celebrity chef Clodagh McKenna among its patrons, will help fund the Irish Cancer Society's National Cancer Freefone Helpline. Last year the helpline responded to approximately 21,000 calls from women and men across Ireland. People can still enter by logging onto www.pinkribbonwalk.ie