Charity Quilt for Arklow Cancer Support

Do you want to join me in making a difference?

I'm raising money in aid of Arklow Cancer Support Group and every donation will help.

I've made a quilt which I will raffle once I meet my target.

Donat to Go Fund me Page

Arklow Cancer Support Coffee Morning 2023 in the Arklow Bay Hotel

Arklow Cancer Support Coffee morning article in the Wicklow People

In November 2019 I was diagnosed with triple negative Breast Cancer. I had to leave work and start treatment almost immediately. I remember buying my second hand sewing machine on route to the hospital for my MRI and telling the radiology technician how excited I was to go home and start using my new pre-love machine. Honestly, I was excited but it stayed in the box for a long time, chemotherapy distracted me and stole my energy. It took me along time to even take it out of the box it had alot more bells and whistles than my old machine bought in Argos. Which has closed down in Arklow and ironically the place I bought my first sewing machine, is now displaying in my charity quilt for Arklow Cancer support. Quilting helped me overcome so much, it let me practice my type of mindfulness, a task that was not taxing on my body allowed my body heal, it was engaging and gave me something to concentrate on, all the time I used my creativity and the sense of overcoming when I accomplished a step of the quilt, a metaphor for my life at that time, patching my life back together slowly.

Christmas 2019 I went to the Arklow Cancer support to introduce myself, I attended the Christmas coffee morning and I stayed for hours chatting. The ladies were so helpful offering advice and help in anyway they could and the other attendees that had been through treatment were so supportive. A week or two later Mary arrived with selection boxes for my kids, I can't describe how much it meant to me.

photo, 1- Diagnosis day 2. Last chemo 3. Sunflowers when treatment finished.

Spring 2019 it was my daughters 6th Birthday, and then the pandemic hit. Lockdown happened and I finished my chemotherapy, I was dropped off at the door. It was so uncertain, my surgery was not deemed necessary as it was an elective procedure, fortunately, I was given a slot and had my surgery and went home the next day. Phone call follow up appointments and zero physio left me a bit at a loss, however Arklow Cancer Support supported me, assuring me that calling the hospital was what I should do with my questions. Someone to reassure you when there was nobody, was invaluable.

Mary and her team called to my house with gifts for my children. This was probably the most amazing thing anyone could have done. When I was diagnosed, there is a team of people to mind me and to help me through all the medical issues, however it's not all medical. My family were also going through this difficult time too. Mammy was tired and i woried about the impact that would have on my children. My children were 3 and 5 years old at the time of diagnosis, Arklow Cancer Support organised an online Santa experience for my kids, they arrived at my door with selection boxes, Halloween colouring pages, Easter eggs and Valentine's Day cards. Little gestures that meant so much, words can not describe how a smile on my children's faces meant when I has so little energy.

I availed of their counselling services and met with the Breast Cancer group online. During a time of such uncertainty, Arklow Cancer Support went above and beyond what I expected. Each small thing helped my children to have little sparks of happiness during a time when their mammy was very tired.

Once treatment was over I opened up the machine and I started to stitch, one patch at a time, one row then another until finally I had a quilt top. I waited another year to quilt it, I wanted to quilt it myself, and I did, I bound it at the coffee morning in the Arklow Bay Hotel this year 2023, 2 full years since i started the quilt. better late than never

Thank you so much for your donation will help Arklow cancer support more families.

GO FUND ME donation page

Patchwork quilt made by Rebecca of Spinning Wheel Quilts in a field for yellow rapeseed.

Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause, it means so much to me.

Míle buíochas ó chroí as tacú.