NICOLA PIERCE ON HEALTH AND HER NEW BOOK ON THE TITANIC
CHILDEN’S AUTHOR POSITIVE ABOUT FUTURE
IF Drogheda-based author Nicola Pierce could have written her own life story, she is the first to admit she would have left out the chapter where she got breast cancer.
But given the adventurous subject matter of the children’s books she writes, she is going to tackle this challenge with the same determination and positivity as every other part of her life.
‘ This is going to sound so strange to people, but this is an exciting thing to have happened, in that it is exhilarating and energising, and I want to face it with the same spirit of adventure that each of my books contains,’ says the Tallaght-born woman, who has made Drogheda her home for the past seven years.
‘So many of my characters have gone on big journeys, and I am now embarking on a big journey of my own, and sharing it with others is giving me great support and comfort, as I hope it will provide comfort to people too.’
Nicola’s ‘journey’, as she calls it, only began a couple of months ago, when, what she thought was merely a pulled tendon, revealed a darker secret beneath.
‘I really have my sister Lynn to thank for buying me a rucksack, to help me carry all the stuff I bring round the country with me to book readings,’ she says, with her warm smile.
‘Last December, on a trip to Greenwich researching my new book, I really thought I had just pulled a muscle, but massaging it later on, I felt something that I just knew in my heart wasn’t right.’
Nicola is terrified of doctors, to the point of never having gone to one in all her time in Drogheda, but for this, she made an exception.
‘In the back of my mind, I felt something was wrong, and when she did an examination, she could feel something smaller under the tendon,’ she recalls.
‘ They did a mammogram, but it was clear, and i was told that day I did not have cancer.
‘But when I went back for a check-up six weeks later, everyone in Beaumont Hospital was as shocked as me to hear it was cancerous. My sister wanted to make life easier, in fact, she saved my life.’
Many of Nicola’s facebook fans will be able to pick up the story from here, as she says she was overwhelmed with the urge to write about it.
‘Anyone who knows me, knows I never put anything personal on facebook, but when I heard the news, sentences were forming in my head, and I had to do this,’ she explains with candour. ‘I was afraid people would think I was being egotistical or showing off about having cancer. But I have to say it was the best thing I ever did, as once I put it up, I felt such support and it’s keeping me going. It’s my way of ‘normalising’ it for myself. I was never the strong silent type!’
The decision was made to operate and remove the cancer from the breast and armpit, after which Nicola was told she would be cancer-free. This was just three weeks ago.
‘I was petrified!,’ she admits. ‘I knew I was being such a baby, as children go through this, and I know so many more who do.
‘But the next day, I felt on such a high that I had done it.’
Now begins the second part of the journey for Nicola - a short break before starting chemotherapy, and the certainty that she will lose her hair.
‘I can do the chemo in Drogheda which is a huge relief,’ says Nicola, who is engaged to Niall Carney, and accountant in the town.
‘I couldn’t bear to see my hair coming out in the shower, so I’m going to shave it all off before I start the treatment in two weeks time.
‘I’ve even ordered a colourful wig, so I can look at myself in the mirror and still be me. A cancer survivor.’