Galway woman refuses to let Cystic Fibrosis hold her back

It may be a debilitating and complex condition – but Sarah Pender has certainly not allowed Cystic Fibrosis (CF) to hold her back.

The 27-year-old from Caltra in East Galway credits her family and medical team at University Hospital Galway (UHG) with being the driving forces behind her remarkable achievements in spite of CF.

But there’s no doubt her own grit, stamina and determination have been essential elements in her success.

Speaking from Budapest, Hungary, ahead of Cystic Fibrosis Ireland’s annual fundraiser, Sarah reflects on how far she has come since the early days when her mother Assumpta would spend hours patting her on the back in order to bring phlegm up from her lungs.

“I had nebulizers, I had to do a lot of physio, there was a pep mask that would open up small airways in the lungs to push out the phlegm, but still I would have to go to hospital two or three times a year because of chest infections,” she recalls.

Sarah was a keen footballer even with her breathing difficulties, playing with Caltra Ladies Football team and playing for the county at Under 14 level.

In third year at secondary school, she joined the late Irish mountaineer Ian McKeever to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa. She trained by climbing every significant mountain in the country with her dad Clinton.

Two months before they were due to leave, she got sick and had to go into hospital to have her appendix removed. While on the ward she caught a chest infection. Yet she still managed to summit the mountain in August 2012.

When the time came to sit the Leaving Cert, she missed a lot of school.

“I was tired all the time. I remember I had to do my exams with cannulas in my arms and go in and out of hospital between subjects.”

Sarah has wanted to be a vet for as long as she can remember. She would feed wild cats with spoons in the garden, she would bring home stray dogs, she once nursed a family of pet lambs.

Her long absences from school meant she missed out on the points to study veterinary medicine, but instead did agricultural science degree in UCD. But her obsession with becoming a vet did not wane.

You can read the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now – or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie