My name is Liz Murphy and I am from Skibbereen. In August of 2021 BreastCheck called me back to have second mammogram after a standard screening. I was diagnosed with early stage breast cancer on the 30^th of August 2021.

I was very lucky. Firstly because my breast cancer was detected early by BreastCheck and secondly because my treatment was a straightforward as one could get, a lumpectomy and 15 days of radium treatment followed by 5 years of hormone suppressants. I tolerated the treatment extremely well, and other than a couple of days off after the operation and the odd day off for appointments, I worked throughout my treatment. When going to Cork for the radium treatment I worked until after lunch, drove myself to Cork, had my treatment and drove home.

I was advised by my Oncologist to walk 5 evenings a week while on medication. Last Christmas to defy the fact that I had previously had breast cancer, to defy my age (62 at the time) and to have an aim when walking, I decided to climb Kilimanjaro. This was a moment of madness as I do not particularly like walking for the sake of it, and I hate walking uphill!

I am booked to climb Kilimanjaro in early September 2023. A number of people asked me if I was doing it for a Charity, and I said no as there was no guarantee that I would reach the summit as many things can go wrong at altitude. In any case I was convinced to do the climb for charity. I looked around and decided that a lot of people in west Cork were not as lucky as I was in travelling to Cork for treatment. Some are too unwell to drive themselves for their treatment or they do not have a car or someone to drive them. Therefore Cancer Connect which gives such a wonderful service to the people of west Cork and was started in my home town of Skibbereen was the one and only choice for me.

I will do my very best to summit Kilimanjaro and I hope you will donate generously to Cancer Connect. I thank you in advance for any donation you will make. All proceeds will go to Cancer Connect.

Liz Murphy Kilimanjaro Challenge

Created by Liz Murphy

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