Official figures show that Fermanagh has one of the highest incidence of cancer in the south west.

In Fermanagh, 1,995 people have been diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2012. In Omagh the diagnosis rate was 1,548 while in Strabane it was 1,208 in the same period. More men (1,065) than women (930) were diagnosed in this period in the county.

Looking at incidence across Fermanagh, cancer incidence varies between electoral wards. Between 2008 and 2012, the incidence in Ballinamallard was 107 people, compared to 56 in Lisnaskea, 50 in Lisnarick, 52 in Newtownbutler, 90 in Castlecoole and 69 in Devenish.  Read moving, straight-talking interviews with cancer sufferers and survivors as they break down the taboo with their incredible stories of struggle and survival.

“I WAS ready to die. I wasn’t scared of dying, I expected it, I expected that my life was over”.

Diagnosed with throat and neck cancer in 2008, Enniskillen woman Patricia Nolan, then 55 years old, had to come to terms with the possibility that her time was up.

“I was scared at night because at night when it was dark and you closed your eyes you thought about it. You asked yourself if you were going to live or die,” said the nurse.

“Honestly, I wasn’t afraid of dying. I thought about dying and I priced funerals. I did think I was going to die, I didn’t think I was going to survive it. Working in the hospital, in that environment, very few people walk away with secondary cancer, very few people survive,” she said.

It was the mother of four’s prompt actions and those of her colleagues at the Erne Hospital that she credits with saving her life. While working in the cardiac unit she discovered a lump on her neck and raised it with one of the nurses and then a consultant.

“And then it just snowballed and I was diagnosed before Christmas. I wasn’t expecting to hear those words. I was on my own with the doctor and I just came out with it. I asked; ’Is it cancer?’ He just looked at me and said; ’Yeah’. I didn’t know what to think, I was taken aback,” she said.

Mrs. Nolan had the operation at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast on her 55th birthday.

“They opened me up and put in 33 staples. I had secondary cancer, but they still couldn’t find the primary. They went in and took a vein, a gland, a tonsil, but still never found it. They finished the whole thing with 37 sessions of high radiotherapy treatment which left a scar. They never did find the primary cancer and I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for it,” she said.

That particular period for Mrs. Nolan and her family was extremely difficult.

“It was horrendous because my dad was sick at the time and he died in the middle of it all. He died when I was having my radiotherapy. I remember the day I told him I had cancer and he said to me; ‘You know, I am going to pray that I die and you live’. I said, ‘don’t be saying that’”. Eugene Keenan died on Easter Sunday. He was 77.

“It was a horrible time. It really was. I really did think I was going to die, I really did. I remember being asked at the time what I thought and I said, I’m never going to see my granddaughter Kayla grow up. I didn’t think I was going to survive it,” she said.

But she did survive, not just to see little Kayla grow up, but see the birth of two more grandchildren; Saoirse and Tiernan, and spend quality time with her children; Colin, Gail, Niall and Eileen and devoted husband Liam.

“Throughout all my battle with cancer I never said; ‘why me’. I thought, ‘why not me?’ I was 55. I had my four children, they were healthy. If it had been one of them I would have been very angry. I just thought; ‘you’ve had a right innings’, so, no, I was never angry.

“I was at the cancer centre in Belfast and it was full of people. There was a girl of 22 sitting beside me, she had a child of 11 months, so I never said ‘why me’ when I saw the likes of that. It opened my eyes seeing that. Cancer is not a taboo, it is not whispered about now, people talk about it. There was a time even when I was going through it that it was called the ‘big c’ and never ‘cancer’. That’s all changed now, and that’s the way it should be,” she said.

Based on her personal experiences, Mrs. Nolan is encouraging people, particularly women, to seek help if they have any health concerns.

“Of course they should get help. Women shouldn’t be afraid of going to the doctor and getting checked up because if you meet it head on and get your treatment you will come out the other end. If you sit around then just remember the cancer will not be sitting around, I can assure you of that,” she said.