NI mum’s heartfelt blog that helped her deal with cancer diagnosis
Mum-of-one Claire Rocks began blogging to make sense of her cancer diagnosis. The statistician tells Stephanie Bell how she reacted to the shock news, how she’s backing Stand Up to Cancer and why she made all her friends try on her wig
❝ I went in thinking I had a cyst and the doctors could tell that the news was going to be a shock
Abrave mum who charted her journey to beat cancer in a heartfelt blog and raised more than £36,000 for research into the disease is calling on people in Northern Ireland to Stand Up to Cancer.
Claire Rocks (39) wrote moving posts and made funny fundraising videos as a way of helping her and her family cope with the difficult surgery and treatment that saved her life.
Today, just over a year on from the end of her treatment, she’s wearing the Stand Up to Cancer wristband to highlight the fact that one person in Northern Ireland — someone just like her — is diagnosed with cancer every hour.
This stark statistic is driving the devoted mum to support Stand Up to Cancer, a joint fundraising campaign from Cancer Research UK and Channel 4 which is backed by a host of celebrities including Davina McCall, Edith Bowman, Alan Carr and Kirsty Allsopp.
Statistician Claire, of Burren in Co Down, who is married to Mark (40), a plumber and has a six-year-old daughter Beibhinn, knows from first-hand experience how important research is in the battle against cancer.
By sharing her experience, she hopes to rally everyone to join the fight against the disease and help save more lives.
She says: “I’m so grateful for the treatment that saved my life but sadly there are other people in Northern Ireland who are just starting out on that awful journey that comes after diagnosis — 24 people in Northern Ireland find out they have cancer every single day.
“Raising money for research is vital — it saves lives. It’s that simple. It’s why doing what you can for Stand Up to Cancer is so important.”
Claire was diagnosed with grade three invasive breast cancer in January 2017 after feeling pain in her breast, which is not a usual symptom. The pain led her to find a lump.
She had a lumpectomy that same month and then underwent six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy. During her chemotherapy her immune system was so low she had to be admitted to hospital with sepsis, a life-threatening infection.
Gravely ill, she spent over a week in hospital, being treated for sepsis, before continuing her chemotherapy and then radiotherapy.
She’s slowly been building her strength since her last radiotherapy session in August last year and is feeling well enough to gear up for her return to work at the NI Statistics and Research Agency next month.
Claire is passionate about raising awareness which is what drove her to publish her blog.
She says: “I started writing the blog for myself to get it all out of my head.
“When you have a cancer diagnosis you go straight onto the internet looking for stories of people who have been through it to find out what to expect.
“I needed hope to know I would survive and I couldn’t find anything online to help me. I realised what I was writing would have helped me which is why I decided to turn it into a blog.
“Awareness is so important. When you finish treatment people think you are over it and you are not. People don’t realise what it is like and awareness is so important for so many reasons — to help people understand, to know your own body, to learn to trust your instinct and to raise funds to try and find why this is happening to so many people.”
Her own cancer was picked up unusually as a result of a pain in her breast just before Christmas 2016. When sent for tests she went alone as it hadn’t entered her mind she could have cancer.
She explains: “It was just coming up to Christmas and I felt a pain in my breast, it was like an ache and I rubbed it and felt a lump. About a week later I got a pain in my arm between my elbow and wrist and decided I needed to go to the doctor.
“Pain is not usually associated with breast cancer and the consultant told me the pain in my arm had nothing to do with it but it was because of that I went to my GP. I had a mammogram and they did a needle test and ultra sound and told me that there were at the very least pre-cancer cells but that I would need a biopsy. I got that two days later and had the results in a week but I knew by then I had cancer.
“I went in thinking I had a cyst and the doctors could tell that the news was going to be a shock.
“I couldn’t take it in. As a statistician I work with figures for a living, but it took me a while to digest it when the consultant said I had an 80% chance of survival after 10 years.
“I thought he was telling me there was an 80% chance I’d be dead in 10 years. That’s how scrambled my brain was at everything that was happening.
“You worry is it just the breast or has it gone somewhere else? And I thought of my young daughter and how I wanted to see her grow up.”
Like many women, Claire found that losing her hair was a difficult part of dealing with her
treatment, but instead of dwelling on its gradual loss, she decided to take control and asked husband Mark to shave off her long blonde locks when they started to fall out.
“I’d seen those clips in films when the cancer sufferer sobs in front of the mirror as their hair falls out. My hair had started to come out in my hands like that but I said to myself ‘I’m not going to be that woman’. So I got some drinks in, asked my mum to join us and we all sat in the kitchen as Mark shaved my head. It made it bearable,” she says.
“As time went on, I got more used to my wig — and then it actually started to take on a bit of a life of its own. First, my daughter wanted to try it on, then I made Mark try it, and then all my friends and family.
“We started to take pictures, which we eventually made into a video we posted on YouTube, and before long it became a bit of a running joke. If you came to visit our house, you had to try on the wig.
“When you’re dealing with cancer, sometimes you feel if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. This most definitely made us laugh.”
Claire will be monitored regularly now that her treatment has finished. She still adds to her blog, www.rockuptocancer.weebly.com, as a way of helping others, and her fundraising mission continues as she supports Stand Up to Cancer.
She recently pulled off an amazing fundraising day in her local community at the end of August which has raised over £36,000 to date for Action Cancer and Cancer Research.
“Whether you donate or organise your own bake sale or whatever, there are lots of ways to get involved. I really hope as many people as possible will get behind this campaign. Together, we can wipe the floor with cancer,” she says.
“I’m turning 40 in January and instead of dreading the milestone birthday like a lot of women, I’m ready to celebrate it. I’m so grateful my treatment was a success and I’m embracing all that life throws at me.”
People in Northern Ireland are being encouraged to take a stand now by requesting a free fundraising pack filled with ideas to help beat cancer.
You can also show your support for the campaign in style as a fun range of clothing and accessories for men, women and children is now available online and at Cancer Research UK shops from late September.
Laura Davidson, Cancer Research UK spokesperson for Northern Ireland, says: “We’re so grateful to Claire for leading the charge against cancer and helping to recruit more people to the cause.
“The good news is more people are surviving than ever before, but too many lives are still cut short.
“Every day our scientists are working tirelessly to beat this devastating disease, but lab research alone won’t get us there.
“We need cash to speed up breakthroughs from the petri dish into better treatments for patients.
“By supporting Stand Up to Cancer, people in Northern Ireland could help to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured,” she says.