ALLOWANCE PAYS FOR HALF A BRA
AFTER six chemotherapy sessions and 25 sessions of radiotherapy, Anne Farrell Kinsella had cause to celebrate this May.
Five years on from her diagnosis of breast cancer, she had her landmark check-up last month.
And after a long, arduous battle, she has fought for and gained a life that she believes is better than before.
‘It sounds strange, but cancer gave me a life,’ the 66-year-old told the Irish Mail on Sunday. ‘I have travelled to new places… in every way I turned my life around.’
But the Limerick mother of three is acutely aware of the unfair ordeal that women face in getting help from the State after surviving one of life’s biggest battles. ‘The system is totally unfair. It should be the same across the board. Cancer robs you of enough, and it is an expensive ordeal. You need bigger clothes, comfier shoes; you’re eating differently and you are trying to eat better for the sake of your body and mind. Your savings are gone.
‘The system should be automatic for everyone. Everyone should get a medical card while they are going through their treatment. I’m very lucky I have a medical card.’
In the main, women who do not have medical cards are not entitled to any long-term provision for postmastectomy products from the State, although they may receive a temporary bra when they leave hospital. ‘To be only allowed two bras a year and a prosthesis every two years is not enough,’ Anne said. But she is lucky compared to women across all the Dublin health districts, who receive substantially less than women in nearly every other county.
Gráinne Wall, 46, from Rathfarnham in Dublin, was diagnosed at 35, when her son was three years old. It was nearly a decade later before she learned she was entitled to some free products. However, because of where she lives, she was only entitled to one free prosthesis and ‘half a bra’ in monetary terms. ‘I was really annoyed,’ she said. ‘If you are going to have an allowance make it equal for everyone.’