Lionel Mc Carthy interview, copyright Victoria Mary Clarke 2004

As a nation,  we are becoming more and more accustomed to hearing the news that someone we know has cancer.  It is practically impossible to find a family who has not lost a member and often, families have lost several members.  That doesn’t make it any easier to bear the grief that cancer causes, but there is hope.  A great many more people are recovering from cancer than ever before.  Not only recovering, but going on to encourage and inspire others to do the same. 
In my job as a journalist, I have had the pleasure and the honour of interviewing a great many people who have recovered from cancer and from what I can see, if it doesn’t kill you, the chances are it will bring out the best in you.  It will reveal to you hidden depths of strength that you never knew you had.  But even I was astonished at the courage and fortitude of one couple that I met, in dealing with the disease.  Because not only did Lionel Mc Carthy find himself being diagnosed with cancer of the head and neck, but his partner Jan was simultaneously diagnosed with cervical cancer.  Both of them have received treatment and have fully recovered, since their diagnoses in 2002.  And they are now dedicating all of their free time to a fundraising event called ‘Dining With the Stars,’, to raise funds for the two professors, Aengus Curran and Donal Hollywood, who saved Lionel’s life, so that they can do cancer research.
I am meeting both Lionel and Jan today, in their office in Dublin where they act as procurement consultants for a company called Achilles.  It is a blustery afternoon, but I find them both to be unnaturally happy for two people who have recently had cancer.  Indomitable, even.  Originally, I was supposed to be talking to Lionel, only after I arrived did they spring it on me that Jan had also had cancer.  And the fundraising event was her idea.  Both of them feel strongly that more money is urgently needed in the area of research, but they are adamant that theirs is not entirely a critical view.
‘People give out about the health service but our experience has been that it is very fast and efficient,’ Jan tells me, after kindly offering me tea. 
‘I was diagnosed in the first week of June and I was operated on in the third week of June.  Partly because I broke down and said ‘This can’t be happening to me.  I can’t be diagnosed with cancer.  Not with Lionel going through it at the same time!”
‘ Jan was going in for her treatment and then she was coming to visit me at St Lukes!’ Lionel says.  ‘We never told anyone in our company that we were ill.  None of our clients knew.  Jan used to bring in the work and we used to do it together.’
‘Did you not have to take time off work?’  I ask, incredulous.  After all, even a flu deserves time off work.
‘Jan took so little time off, it was incredible,’ Lionel says adoringly.  ‘A week!’
‘But I have to say they treated me brilliantly,’ she adds.
Jan is not a smoker, but her mother had  cervical cancer, thus increasing the risk of her contracting it, so she was somewhat prepared, even though she is only forty. 
Before Lionel was diagnosed, he had thought that he would never be the one who would get cancer.  One day, while he was showering, he simply noticed a lump on the back of his neck that hadn’t been there before.  The lump was x-rayed quickly and he was operated on within weeks, after which he underwent chemotherapy and radiotherapy under the supervision of Professor Holland.  For a while, he could only eat through a straw and lost three stone, but now he is fully recovered and is almost back to his normal weight.
‘Nobody in my family has had head and neck cancer, but I know of no family who hasn’t had cancer,’ he says.  ‘I never thought it would happen to me.  But I reckon that I got cancer because I was smoking too many cigarettes, drinking too much alcohol and living too high a life for so many years.’
‘But why you?’ I ask.
‘Put it this way, I’m not an atheist.  I thought that maybe someone was putting a punctuation mark on my life.  Giving me a warning about my behaviour and lifestyle, but not saying ‘Come in number four, your time is up!’
‘You didn’t ever really think you were going to die?’  I ask.
‘No.’
‘Well…. You did, actually!” Jan interjects.
‘Okay, I did for a while,’ Lionel laughs.
  ‘But they saved my life.  Where they had to do the operation was on a really sensitive part of my body, the part that connects it to the brain.  And it was obvious to me that the balance of treatments, the type and duration of chemotherapy and the radiotherapy, the use of the different machinery was crucial.  The medical team and the back up in St Lukes was fantastic.’
Lionel felt very lucky to be alive. 
‘But I was also lucky in that I was a private patient.  There are very few of these consultants, and they only have one pair of hands each.  So I don’t think that all of the patients could possibly be getting the treatment that they need.  And there isn’t enough money for research, we know that.  To be appointed as a professor and to be told that you wont be given any research funds is like being told that you are going to become an apprentice brick layer, but you are not going to get a trowel or a lump hammer!  So they saved my life and in turn, I agreed to help them to raise funds.  Our target is a hundred thousand euros.’
‘Dining With The Stars’ has been an interesting learning curve for the couple.  Luckily, Lionel’s father was in the entertainment business, his name was Mick Mc Carthy and he was a singer/songwriter who also owned the famous Embankment Club in Tallaght.  So they did have the benefit of contacts, but even so, the business of tracking down celebrities and persuading them to host tables has been a challenge.  There is plenty of competition from other charities and there are endless legalities to attend to.  They have risen to the challenge, and  on the night, the paying guests are promised to be dining with a host of famous, infamous and fascinating stars, including Niall Toibin, Tim Pat Coogan, Shane Mac Gowan, George Hook and Enda Kenny. As well as the sparkling repartee, there will be musical acts and a raffle.  Lionel admits that organising the event was stressful, but he recently attended a lecture on stress management.
‘And do you know something?’ he says.  ‘Now I’m not worried about anything at all!” 
‘Dining With The Stars’ is at Jury’s Hotel, Ballsbridge on Saturday October 30.  Ticket Hotline 01 402 0117