A brave Irish teen has spoken out about her battle with cancer in the hopes of inspiring other young people currently suffering from the illness.
The Irish Independent reports that Lora Doyle from Arklow in county Wicklow has won mass amounts of admiration for her positive outlook on life.
The 14-year-old was diganosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma less than a month ago and since then, she has adopted an inspiring, optimistic outlook on her life.
“It’s really shocking and generally hard because you don’t know what could happen,” said Lora.
“But I want to make something positve out of it – there’s no point crying at home,” she added.
The teen wrote a letter to national newspaper, the Irish Independent, and described how she had ignored the lump growing on her neck for the past few months. On Christmas Day, Lora finally told her aunt (who is a doctor) and who immediately told her to get it checked out.
“There could be other kids having these symptoms and not doing anything. I ignored my lump,” said Lora.
Lora is from Arklow in county Wicklow
The lump on Lora’s neck grew progressively bigger over the course of a few months and Lora lost her appetite and began to suffer from severe exhaustion.
“I noticed since going back to school in September, she was coming in the evening dropping her schoolbag and going straight to bed,” said Lora’s mother.
“I’d call her for dinner at six o’clock and it was a struggle to get her down. I never dreamed it could be this serious,” she added.
Lora went to see her GP who immeditely referred her to Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children in Crumlin. Aftr a long wait in A&E, Lora’s dad told doctors that they would not be leaving without getting some answers.
A surgeon ordered a biopsy and Lora received her diagnosis shortly afterwards. Despite the life-changing news, Lora believes that everything happens for a reason.
“I now know what it is like to be faced with such tragic news. But I feel this was meant to happen. I believe every negative has a positive. My family are now much closer and stronger,” said Lora.
“I want my story to show young people my age, that although life may get hard, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. I want people to know that cancer can happen to anyone,” she added.
Lora has now started a two-month course of chemotherapy and her doctors are “very positive” about her outcome.
We think Lora is such a brave and inspirational young woman and we wish her all the best as she undergoes the rest of her treatment.
