Mary’s pioneering US treatment aids cancer recovery

When Clonbur woman Mary Philbin beat cancer, her suffering and struggle was just beginning.

Eight years ago, the Connemara woman from Ardane, Clonbur was diagnosed with a form of cancer which involved a tumour of the sinuses, extending from the base of her tongue to the base of her brain across to her left eye. 

Mary underwent treatment – both chemotherapy and radiotherapy – but she had hit rock bottom, she was so weak, in so much pain.

“I felt that if the cancer wasn’t killing me, the treatment surely was,” she says from her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina where she is based after finding a US doctor over the internet that might help.

Mary (27) has been in and out of hospital more times in the past few years than she cares to remember. The double treatment for cancer, she recalls, was successful up to a point: Mary is now cancer free but is suffering severe side-effects.

“I can’t eat – I don’t know when the last time I ate. I’m living on liquid nutrition, my saliva glands are completely destroyed, I’ve no saliva so I can’t talk for too long. The radiotherapy is like getting fried – burning the throat to get rid of the cancer but it left a scorched throat,” she says.

Mary started to research online for alternatives. By chance, she came upon a “wonderful doctor”, US based Christopher Sullivan.

“I read stories online of patients of his who weren’t able to eat until they met him. One man hadn’t eaten for ten years,” she says.

“It’s a gamble . . . it’s a risk,” she says, recalling that Dr Sullivan didn’t know whether he could help her without meeting.

But it’s costly, and the community in Connemara has rallied round fundraising to help Mary, including Clonbur GAA Club who kept the gate proceeds from the recent Comórtas Peile na Gaeltachta competition, as well as in Oughterard where a fundraiser was held recently in the Boat Inn.

More on Mary’s story can be found on www.maryphilbin.com where a fund has been started; or on her Facebook page where details of a bank account and sort code are available.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.