I want to be my dear late f iancée Aoife’s campaigning voice on cervical cancer
THE grieving fiancé of a young woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer as the couple were planning their wedding is on a mission to be her ‘voice’ as he completes a 200km fundraising cycle in her home town today.
Kevin Cullen hopes the cycle, which will conclude at Aoife O’Donovan’s final resting place in Dungarvan, Co. Waterford, will raise awareness of types of cancer undetectable by smear tests while also encouraging women to avail of the tests – which were strongly advocated by Aoife in the months before her death in May.
‘I want to be Aoife’s voice now,’ Kevin told the Irish Mail on Sunday. Aoife was Kevin’s ‘fiancée, best friend. She was everything to me’.
Along with family and friends, he is cycling from his home in Walkinstown in Dublin to Dungarvan over two days. So far over €30,000 has been raised for the Irish Cancer Society.
The couple met as students on a J1 visa in Boston and fell in love.
‘We dated for the next 10 years and in 2018, we got engaged,’ said Kevin.
In 2020 the young couple were ‘in the midst of planning’ their wedding for February this year when Aoife began to notice irregular bleeding.
‘Every woman would say she bleeds irregularly from time to time so we weren’t too concerned at first,’ said Kevin, 32. ‘Then the bleeding started to get heavier.’
A GP’s reassurance that it was probably nothing to worry about left the couple ‘obviously very relieved’, until a severe bleed occurred some time later.
‘It was traumatic. We got a massive fright with this,’ he said.
The following day – Kevin’s birthday – the couple called their GP who instructed them to go straight to The Coombe Women’s Hospital in Dublin, where an internal examination revealed a large mass on Aoife’s cervix.
‘They took a biopsy and then a week later they called to tell us that Aoife had cervical cancer.’
Kevin has since questioned why no internal exam was carried out on the first visit to the GP.
‘The doctor just had a chat with Aoife,’ he said. ‘When Aoife was diagnosed, she had a fivecentimetre tumour. If GPs were to do internal examinations, it would definitely help.’
Aoife was diagnosed with a glandular carcinoma on her cervix – a non-HPV form of cervical cancer undetectable by regular smear tests.
After chemotherapy and radiotherapy, her medical team ‘were confident’ she would go into remission.
‘Aoife battled like an absolute trooper for several months, for which I’m so proud of her,’ said Kevin.
In March 2021, tests showed the treatment had worked on the tumour but secondary cancer remained around Aoife’s cervix and pelvic area. More scans the following week revealed the cancer had spread to lymph nodes around the heart and lungs.
‘So that meant the cancer had become stage four,’ explained Kevin. ‘And it had travelled too far to cure.’
Life at this point became ‘one big battle’ for the couple.
‘You’ll try to sleep when you need to sleep, and then when you’re awake you’ll just try to get through the days.
‘You’re waiting scan to scan. You’re hoping for the best but expecting the worst. It was hell. It was absolute hell.’
Prior to Aoife’s death on May 1, days before her 31st birthday, she had advocated strongly for smear tests and ‘also wanted to spread awareness about non-HPV cervical cancers’ and their
symptoms, mainly irregular bleeding.
‘I want to be Aoife’s voice now,’ said Kevin. ‘I want to encourage everyone to avail of smear tests, to get lumps and bumps checked out, and to be aware of non-HPV cervical cancers as well.’ ÷Search Gofundme.com for Aoife O’Donovan to donate.