‘It hasn’t really hit me yet, it still feels like I’m in a dream’

THE DAY before Shannen Murphy turned 28 years old, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer and is now raising awareness around the importance of smear tests.

For the mother of four, the whole process of getting a smear test or being diagnosed is something that she never thought she would go through.

“I’ve never been sat down and said that it was important to get a smear test, I was always one of those people that thought it would never happen to me,” the Tallaght native tells The Echo.

“It’s so naïve when you think of it. I’m a healthy person, I’ve no illnesses, and I don’t neglect my body.

“I always felt like going to get a smear wasn’t going to make a difference. I only watched the documentary about Jade Goody last year and I still never would have thought to get one done.

“I also never thought that a doctor would sit down in front of me and say that I’ve cervical cancer or that a smear test saved my life.”

Shannen, whose four children are all under the age of eight, had no symptoms, with a vivid dream triggering her to go and get a smear test done.

“There was nothing at all, what actually happened was I had this dream that I had cervical cancer,” Shannen says.

“I had no symptoms or anything and I never knew a smear was important, so I had no real interest in getting one.

“It was only really in the shock of the dream, because it was so real, that made me ring the doctor to go and get a smear done.”

Following the examination, she was referred to Tallaght University Hospital for further tests and was then asked to come back in on June 22, when she was given the diagnoses.

“The doctor basically explained to me that everything is going to happen very fast,” Shannen explains.

“I’m looking at a hysterectomy, lymph node removal, maybe chemo or radiation. I might end up with nerve damage in certain parts of my body.

“It’s something I’m not taking lightly, but I’m being left with a choice of do I want to live or do I want to die.

“So I said to him, take it all, I need to do what needs to be done.

“I was told that if it had have been another month, it could have been way further along and that I was lucky that I went when I did.

“It hasn’t really hit me yet, it still feels like I’m in a dream. But I have to be positive, the head is everything in this.

“I have to do it until I don’t have cancer. I’m very hopeful of a full recovery.”

She adds: “Everybody needs to go and get a smear test done.”

“I hope I can make a difference for one person in sharing my story and spreading awareness because it really could be a different story altogether in a years’ time.”

Cervical screenings, or smear tests, are free to anyone between the ages of 25 and 65, and do not need to receive a letter from CervicalCheck to undergo a cervical screening test.