‘I want to be that voice for her’

CLIMBING Mount Kilimanjaro is next on the agenda for Kevin Cullen, who is raising funds and awareness for cervical cancer in memory of his late fiancée.

Carrying out different challenges to raise awareness for cervical cancer is helping Kevin through the trauma of losing the love of his life, Aoife O’Donovan, to the disease last year three days before they were due to wed.

Last year, he completed a 200km charity cycle.

This year, the challenge is summiting the almost 6,000m tall Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

Raising awareness for cervical cancer was at the forefront of Aoife’s mind prior to her death at the age of 30 in May 2022.

Kevin on the cycle last year

“It was the one-year anniversary of Aoife’s passing on the first of May,” Kevin tells The Echo this week.

“I’m okay, I have good days and bad days like anyone else who has gone through a significant trauma.

“What I keep coming back to is that Aoife was thinking about life after cancer, and how she wanted to advocate for people to get a smear test, get lumps and bumps checked, go to the doctor if you’re having any irregular bleeding and get checked for non-HPV cancers which would not show up in a smear test.

“Aoife wouldn’t have wanted me to give up, that’s why I want to be that voice for her in trying to raise awareness and do something for a good cause.”

Doing the challenge in Aoife’s name is giving the 33-year-old something to look forward to, it takes his focus everyday as he prepares to make the climb in August.

“I am really excited, I needed something to focus on. People need some sort of an outlet when they are going through a trauma,” Kevin explains.

“Climbing Mount Kilimanjaro seemed like a quite big challenge, so I’ve been focused on my fitness every day and it will be an opportunity to see the world and promote a good cause.”

Kevin has undertaken an everyday training regime in the gym to prepare his body for the massive task, recently completed a training camp in Glendalough.

Although he admits “they’re not quite Kilimanjaro”, Kevin has frequented Bray Head and the Sugar Loaf as a taster for what’s to come in August – when he does the real thing.

Kevin and his cycling team last year presented €42,000 to the Irish Cancer Society

Last year, Kevin raised over €42,000 for the Irish Cancer Society on a charity cycle from Walkinstown to Dungarvan, Co Wexford, where the couple had bought a house but never had the opportunity to live in.

A native of Dungarvan, Aoife said yes when Kevin asked her to marry him in 2018, with the view of getting married in 2022. As Kevin details, Aoife “started to notice irregular bleeding” but the couple “didn’t think too much into it at the time” until her condition started to deteriorate and required a biopsy in The Coombe in October 2020.

“About a week after the biopsy we were on the drive down to The Coombe to get the results and in the car, we were thinking this was one of those scares that we’d look back on in years to come,” Kevin told The Echo last year.

“She was diagnosed with a non-HPV cervical cancer, so it is non-detectable on a smear test, and it was quite advanced at that stage.

“So, very quickly, Aoife started chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and she fought so hard, I’m so proud of her for how hard she fought.

“We got good news then in March 2021, the mass in her pelvis had responded well.

“But we were told after another scan that the cancer had spread throughout Aoife’s lymphatic system, around her heart and lungs, and that it had gone too far to cure.”

With Aoife undergoing treatment to maintain the cancer and prolong her life, the couple decided to cancel their wedding, which was scheduled for February last year.

However, while Aoife was in St James’s Hospital, Kevin started the process of getting a court injunction so that the couple could wed in the hospital.

“When I asked Aoife to marry me, I had full intention to carry that through, I wanted to call Aoife my wife and say I was her husband, even if it was only for a couple of days,” Kevin told The Echo before.

“But she died three days before we could get married in the ward.

“Aoife battled a tough fight for 18 months until she passed on May 1.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help raised funds for the Irish Cancer Society.

To support the cause on GoFundMe HERE.

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