Health

Anne Rackard was diagnosed with a brain tumour while studying to be a psychotherapist. She tells Joy Orpen how the innovative treatment she received allowed her to complete her studies at the age of 60

Life after a brain tumour

Anne Rackard is the sort of woman who turns heads.

Her innovative, creative energy manifests outwardly in pink hair and bright clothing. But that energy also comes from a much deeper source — from her need to know, to understand and to grow. So, it comes as no surprise that this dynamo recently qualified as a psychotherapist, even though she had been diagnosed with a brain tumour slap-bang in the middle of her studies. Clearly, she’ll find a way to overcome whatever obstacles beset her, come hell or high water.

Anne’s working life began with Wexford County Council. During this particular phase, she met businessman Nick Rackard. They had two children, who are now grown up. Over the years, Anne did a number of courses in complementary therapies, including reflexology. “I’d hurt my back at gym before I had the kids,” she explains. “After they were born, the pain returned, so I had reflexology and was amazed when my back got better — as did some other ailments that had bothered me.”

Anne was particularly drawn to African reflexology. “It’s a different way of working with people, using a gentle energy. It seems to allow my clients to open up,” she says. She then did some courses in cancer care, followed by a higher diploma in social, personal and health education.

In June 2014, her much-loved father died. Nonetheless, a few months later, she embarked on a demanding course of study with the Gestalt Institute of Ireland, with the goal of becoming a psychotherapist. On top of her studies, she was obliged to commit to a good deal of self-exploration with the help of an experienced therapist. She was also expected to attend several group residential sessions a year, where interactive explorations of past and present experiences would take place.

“I got through a lot of issues,” she says, “and boy, did a lot of stuff come up, including the loss of my father. Then, in January 2016, my son Nicky emigrated to New York. Soon after, my mother, who had been diagnosed with cancer, decided she wanted to end her days at home, which she did, a few months later.”

Anne says the Gestalt work helped her understand her sometimes uneasy relationship with her mother. “Thanks to the training and my experience of living in the community with fellow students and trainers, I was able to be with my mother in a more meaningful way before she died,” she explains.

Losing her father and then her mother, the children leaving home, and the stresses of her studies all contributed to Anne’s frequent bad headaches — or so she thought. “I put them down to life,” she says, adding, “Then the headaches got worse and I began to vomit, to lose my balance and to experience facial numbness.”

Anne’s daughter Anna-Leigh, who was also about to move abroad, to Vancouver, insisted her mother get medical advice. A locum diagnosed vertigo, and prescribed medication. But Anna-Leigh wasn’t convinced, and encouraged her mother to get a second opinion — which she did, from her own GP. He immediately referred Anne to the Beacon Hospital.

Following an MRI scan, she joined her group at the Gestalt residency. Two days later, she woke with such a bad headache, she couldn’t even make the trip home. “Nothing I took helped,” she explains. A few days later, she got a call summoning her back to the Beacon, where she and Nick were stunned to learn that Anne had a brain tumour.

“The ear, nose and throat consultant said it had probably been growing for some years, and was now quite big,” Anne says. “I was shocked and worried that the

“I was worried the tumour would kill me. However, he said these growths were usually benign, and I took solace in that”

tumour would kill me. However, he told me that these growths were usually benign, and I took solace in that.”

At the time, Anne was looking forward to a Christmas reunion with both of her children in Vancouver. An added attraction was the fact that she had secretly been commissioned to bring an engagement ring from Ireland, as Anna-Leigh’s boyfriend planned to propose. Not surprisingly, following the diagnosis, Anne was even more desperate to go.

“I told the specialist I had to travel to Canada, because I’d lost my mum and needed to see my children. He said he’d do what he could.”

According to Dr Osama Salib, consultant radiation oncologist at St Luke’s and the Hermitage, Anne’s condition was caused by a vestibular schwannoma, a slow-growing benign tumour, at the base of her skull.

“It was in an awkward position and was blocking the ear from the inside,” he says. “Benign tumours are not cancerous and do not spread, but they can cause paralysis and other complications if they’re not controlled. Anne’s tumour was likely to impact seriously on her quality of life.”

Dr Salib says that following a multi-disciplinary meeting attended by six or seven consultants including a neurosurgical consultant with an interest in skull-based tumours, it was decided the best option for Anne was targeted radiation, using the relatively new high-tech CyberKnife system.

Referring to Anne’s kind of tumour Dr Salib says, “In the past, there was no alternative to surgery, which could be quite mutilating and could cause paralysis. But by using this non-invasive system, we [he and neurosurgeon Mr Daniel Rawluk] were able to target the tumour and to put it into regression.”

Anne had three sessions of radiotherapy, which ended on December 10, 2016. She says she slept for almost all of the following week and then on

December 19, she flew, with the precious ring, to Vancouver.

Two days later, her daughter got engaged at the magical Festival of Lights at the Botanic Gardens.

Unbelievably, just three weeks after her treatment ended, Anne was already back in residence with her Gestalt colleagues. A few months later, the site of the radiotherapy became inflamed, but was successfully treated.

Last September, Anne began her final year of study and hasn’t looked back. “During that year, no one died. I didn’t get sick, and in August, I turned 60. I’ve had three scans and the tumour is no longer growing,” she says. “While great medical intervention dealt with the tumour, the Gestalt training got me through the past four years. I was able to stay present to the experience and not worry about what came next.”

Anne, who has just returned from her daughter’s magical wedding in France, is now fully qualified and running her own private practice as a psychotherapist.

Congratulations are surely in order.