*John Wall. Photograph: John Mangan
QUIN’S John Wall describes himself as someone who is living with cancer rather than a cancer survivor.
He is well-known for his advocacy work following his own battle to secure a medical card despite a terminal diagnosis, and he continues with his campaign to help those with cancer easily avail of supports.
He believes the patient advocate voice is a “very important one” and he continues to work with politicians and the HSE to try and better the services for “people like myself across the country”.
John received a terminal diagnosis for stage four prostate cancer in 2017. Having availed of various Irish Cancer Society services personally, John has also recently witnessed friends being supported in their final moments by the Society. As such, he is well positioned to evaluate the contribution of the Irish Cancer Society on the lives of cancer sufferers and their families.
“The night nurses they provide – through friends of mine who have sadly passed away – I’ve seen the work that they do. The support they provide in-house for a lot of people who decide, for example, to pass away at home in the latter stages of life. The Irish Cancer Society provide night nurses that come in and make that possible. It’s a very unique and special experience”.
Cancer research funding, volunteer drivers, and peer to peer support are some of the other critical works ongoing within the Society while John describes the daffodil centres as a “fabulous service”.
“The daffodil centres are co-located with many public centres around the country where you have a lot of holistic services and psychology services available, you can sit down and have a cuppa with other patients and meet other patients and meet other families. It’s a place where outside of the clinical environment you can learn to live with and deal with cancer diagnosis and meet like-minded people.
“The counselling sessions which the ICS provide, which I have availed of, are quite extraordinary actually. When I was diagnosed, I thought I could deal with things, that I was strong enough to do it – I’ve always dealt with a lot of things by myself – but I was wasn’t. I was put in touch with the counselling services that the Cancer Society have on offer and it made a phenomenal difference to myself and how I deal with things and how I live with cancer. This has stood me in good stead. I’m still here, still doing well but most importantly still dealing with it very well from a psychological perspective.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, John is encouraging people to get involved in Relay For Life Ennis this year. The last time the event was held physically, he was unable to attend due to cancer treatment he was undergoing but John says that he’s excited to be in a position to get involved this year. “I’m looking forward to it to be honest with you, it’s a chance for me to meet some people I haven’t seen in quite some time.”
