Oisín Kiernan is a thirty-year-old pig farmer and a Gaelic footballer on the Castlerahan and Cavan County teams. He was diagnosed with testicular cancer in September 2018.
Back in the summer of 2018 I was enjoying life and football. One day, I felt a kind of roughness down the side of my right testicle. It wasn’t really a lump, but more like a roughness in my case. I didn’t have any other alarming symptoms and I felt fine, so I left it, hoping it would go away. After about five or six weeks I mentioned it to my father, who has a history of testicular cancer and he said we should go and get it checked with the doctor.
Getting diagnosed
After a series of scans I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I was quite open about the diagnosis from the start. Talking to my father and to other people I knew who had experience with testicular cancer, brought a sort of a calmness to the situation.
Getting treatment
I had an operation to remove the testicle and four rounds of chemotherapy. When I lost my hair and my image changed quite a bit, it was a bit of a shock. I was looking in the mirror and I didn’t know who was looking back at me. I spoke to a few friends about it at the time and they really helped to remind me that image doesn’t matter and the important thing was that I got my life and my health back. Family, friends, the GAA community and even rival teams were all a great support to me and really rallied around me at the time, which is something that I’ll never forget. My last day of chemotherapy was the 4th February 2019 and I was given the all clear on 4th March. Ever since then things have been brilliant.
" If I was to share what I learnt through my experience I would say to be aware of your body and as soon as you notice anything unusual go straight to the doctor "
If I was to share what I learnt through my experience I would say to be aware of your body and as soon as you notice anything unusual go straight to the doctor. In my case maybe I wouldn’t have had to have chemotherapy if I had gone to the doctor sooner. We don’t know for sure, but it’s a possibility. The other thing I would say is that cancer doesn’t have to stop you from doing what you want to do and you can carry on with your life after cancer. It will slow you down for a bit but you can get back to yourself eventually.”
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