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The voice of Scotland’s vibrant voluntary sector

Published by Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations

TFN is published by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Mansfield Traquair Centre, 15 Mansfield Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6BB. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation. Registration number SC003558.

I have no time for self pity - I’ve got living to get on with

This opinion piece is almost 7 years old
 

Mum Linda Tierney, 57, from West Lothian, was diagnosed with terminal cancer at Christmas. Now the first dance song from her wedding has been released as a charity single for Marie Curie.

It was a few months after Robert and I got together, in May 2014, that I found out I had cancer.

It’s a misconception that a smear test protects you from ovarian cancer, it doesn’t.

I had suffered symptoms but didn’t know, I thought I was just going through the change of life.

The doctor gave me an internal examination and said she could feel something so I was sent to the hospital within a week for an ultrasound test. It was an 8cm tumour.

Linda Tierney

My dream is to celebrate my first wedding anniversary

Linda Tierney

Quite quickly after that I went for a full body scan and found out it had grown to 11cm.

That was February. I had a full hysterectomy in May and they took out the tumour. It was the size of a rugby ball.

They initially thought that they’d caught all of the cancer but there were small seeds of cancer still there.

I started 18 weeks of chemo. That was quite gruelling. At that time I was running, jumping, skipping. Robert made me keep exercising. We became celebrities locally – it was a sight as I had my bald head and the two of us in our sports gear were recognised every time we went out, with car horns going off.

The hospital doctors were happy, and being naive I thought that the chemo had worked but didn’t know that the chemo was stunning it so it only appeared that way.

In November we went on holiday to Tenerife. When we came back I felt tired and I kind of knew. They scanned me again in the hospital and found that it had come back in my bowel and it was just touching my liver, but would go in there eventually.

I got the news from the oncologist that it was terminal the Wednesday before Christmas and that I had 10-18 months. I knew myself, so she was confirming what I knew. But I was devastated as to what to tell my boys – I was almost more worried for my family.

Robert and I decided we wanted to have Christmas in the house together and tell the family in January. We had a really good Christmas.

After that, when we told the boys they were devastated. They’re strong laddies but the initial shock and seeing their faces – I don’t like to picture their faces when we gave them the news.

I’m not spending one minute on selfpity. I want to have a good time and enjoy myself. I’m known as a bit of a party animal and I want to create memories for my children and grandchildren. To demonstrate that you can have a positive life.

I’m quite active and fit. I eat well, we cook food from scratch. I’m in occasional pain but not on pain killers. From that point of view I think I’m doing well.

Last year Robert and I had spoken about getting married and at Christmas, Robert proposed. We started preparing for it in February and it all came together.

It was the best day of my life and I’ll never forget it. Every so often I’ll have a smile about something.

You’ll pick up your phone and it will be there on Facebook because someone’s posted something.

We started at 6.30am and got to bed at 4.30am the next day. Both my sons walked me down the aisle and the ministers who took the service were a husband and wife team.

I’m aiming to get past Christmas. Then Valentine’s day. Then my birthday in February. Then Robert’s birthday on 16 March. My absolute dream is to celebrate my first wedding anniversary.

I don’t know if it will happen – but we’ll prepare in case it doesn’t happen.

Download the song Gorgeous here.