Nicola's Story

Nicola Pierce was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer and underwent 5 months of chemotherapy in her local hospital, Our Lady of Lourdes in Drogheda. After this she was told she would also have to undergo radiotherapy which could only be done in Beaumont Hospital over five weeks. Nicola doesn’t drive and her husband works; she thought she could ask her sister to bring her up but she has children and Nicola didn’t want to put pressure on her. This became a source of stress. As Nicola said “It sounds strange but I had felt safe doing my 5 months of chemo in the Lourdes, I knew everyone, I didn’t have to put anyone else under pressure to get me there, so I was really nervous about travelling up to Beaumont.”

While in Drogheda Nicola came across Drogheda Hospice Homecare doing a flagday outside Tesco. I explained my situation to two of their volunteers and they gave me a number to ring and encouraged her to get in touch. Nicola noted “I was so nervous ringing, the whole idea of getting myself to Beaumont was becoming a huge source of stress, and I was worried they wouldn’t be able to help me. It turns out I had no reason to be fearful.”

A volunteer driver took Nicola to Beaumont for 5 weeks of radiation and made a really stressful experience so much better. They cut hours off travel time, it was only 40 minutes each way which would have been hours on public transport. Nicola spoke really positively about the volunteer

“They were such easy company – allowing me to speak if I wanted to but also when I was exhausted after treatment leaving me to my own thoughts. This was so important. Chemotherapy is actually quite a social treatment, you’re all in the room and can have the chats but radiotherapy is very lonely and my volunteer driver provided me with that social connection when I really needed it.

To be honest I don’t know if could have underwent the treatment and recovered so well from it without the support I got from Drogheda Hospice Homecare. I had a stress free 5 weeks when I was expecting it to be so difficult. I could rest when I was needed and was collected from my door and brought to the door of the hospital, whatever the weather – and given my treatment was in October/November that was so important for me. Truly, in the midst of a crappy year the compassion and care I received from those volunteers was a life changing experience for me.”

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