'If it wasn't for my wife, I probably wouldn't be here' - Louth man battling brain cancer

A 37-year-old father of three from Dundalk in Louth has described his terrifying experience being diagnosed with brain cancer only a few years after his wife's cancer diagnosis while pregnant with their first child.

Paul Martin, in an exclusive interview, has opened up on the whirlwind of events he and his wife have been through over the past five years both fighting cancer while trying to raise their family.

"So basically, just over a year ago, I went to work on a normal day, so I didn't feel anything unusual. I worked in Dublin in AIB and randomly, at about 11am, I took a seizure. So I was sitting down, helping a colleague at the desk, and took a seizure, collapsing on the floor.

"My colleagues all rushed over and then rang an ambulance...and I only came to when the paramedics were on scene.

"Everyone told me, to an extent, what happened to me, but I wasn't really conscious at that stage. It was only really by the time I got to the hospital I realised what was happening."

Paul said that the doctors scanned his head straight away and had initially thought he had a bleed on the brain but they weren't exactly sure. He was referred to Beaumont Hospital then for further scans and there he was told he had a brain tumour.

Two weeks later Paul had a biopsy and was called back two or three weeks later for results, confirming the diagnosis.

"I was very scared, but I skipped out of the meeting very happy, because they told me it was a lowly aggressive brain tumour, which meant that it could be treated with surgery, chemo and radio therapy.

"They advised me from the start that at some point it could transform into a more aggressive tumour. But the treatment should help, hopefully, to reduce the risk of that happening down to a very minimal level. So, what that means is that it might take 20 years for a change to a highly aggressive performing tumour, or it might never happen."

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Paul underwent surgery for his brain tumour on October 10, 2024, where he had to shave his head and they removed half of the tumour.

"I did very well after treatment. I recovered after I'd been in bed for a week after and passed all the physical and mental tests before leaving."

Paul also started radiotherapy in February of this year and did seven weeks of that every day up in Beaumont before he started chemotherapy.

"It's a full year of chemo, which I'm still in the middle of it. So, I have four cycles currently done, and I have two left. I finish all my treatment by March. At which point, I'll be re-scanned and see what progress is made on the chemo. 

"But I should hopefully live a long and healthy life with it there and not bother me, hopefully."

Paul set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for the services that help him while going up and back to hospital on a regular basis.

He started using a hospice car service in Louth that takes patients up to their treatment, waits for them, and then
takes them home, which he thought was incredible.

"I just thought it was a brilliant service. And I said, look, when I'm fit and ready, I'll do some sort of a fundraiser to give back. Because if you think about the amount of money they would have helped me save. And the hassle and the stress, you know, of asking people for help."

Paul decided to do a half marathon to raise money to give back to the hospice car service which he found very challenging but managed to fundraise €3,000.

He realised, despite having brain cancer, that he would be able to run again after he saw a friend from Dublin on a run who was essentially "going around with half a skull."

"I actually have a friend who is going through something else himself, where a tree fell on top of him in Dublin, and crushed his skull. He's waiting for his skull implant to be reinserted, because he's going round with half a head at the moment.

"I met him out running with his girlfriend, and I was like, 'are you out running?' He said, 'yeah.' And that sort of inspired me to, well; if he can run, I can run.

"So, I just said, right, I'm going to go back and start running. I took it really slow at the start. I did a couple of small miles, two miles, three miles. Very slow, actually. And I realised, I can do this. So, I started into it, and I did a bit more training. And I was like, right, okay, we'll give this half marathon a run. Now, the half marathon itself was a lot harder than I anticipated, because it was a trail run, which meant it was on a mountain, in a forest.

"It was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done. But I was determined to finish it. I've got great sponsorships from friends and family."

Paul also described his wife's own cancer story while she was pregnant with their first child.

"It's been five years between myself and my wife both having cancer...over the last six years, we've had three babies and
two cancers in the family.

"My wife got diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma when she was 30 weeks pregnant with our first child and that was terrifying.

"When the word cancer was mentioned to my wife while pregnant, I was terrified, and so was she. We were conscious of the baby....but she had a normal birth.

"Unfortunately, our child came out and was sick, and they couldn't find out what was wrong with him. And he spent two or three weeks in the NICU...he had great care from Crumlin and the Coombe and he bounced out of it and fought it
off himself, because it was a viral infection, they deemed it at the time."

Paul explained that their baby fighting off his illness paved the way for his wife to say, 'well, he's out there fighting something for us, so I'll go and fight this cancer.'

Within a 12-month period Paul's wife was deemed cancer-free.

"She had a tough battle, lost all her hair, her eyebrows and all the rest. And for a woman, it's twice as hard as it is for a man, in that sense...you lose your identity, really. 

"So, she went and fought cancer...when the word cancer was mentioned to me originally, I was scared, but now I have the knowledge to know that cancer does not mean terminal."

Paul said that life for himself now is very boring and quiet as he can't really do much until his treatment is finished.

He is hoping to go back to work next year and in the meantime, he gets the kids ready in the morning, he gets out for a walk
and then he is waiting for everyone to come back home.

A highlight over the past few years for the family was their wedding in 2023.

"If it wasn't for my wife, I probably wouldn't be here. I wouldn't have been as strong throughout all this. She deserves an awful lot of credit. When I was at my weakest over the course of treatment and recovering from surgery, she basically raised a family tree while working full-time. Up until recently, she was working in Dublin and commuting every day as well.

"So, that was a very hard challenge to face, on top of everything else. Now, she's been fortunate enough to get a job in Dundalk, so she's hopefully put that M50 behind her now at this stage.

"We've had a mad couple of years but a highlight would be the wedding in December 2023 in Killarney. So, we had a big wedding.

"We had over 200 guests, and it was a great weekend of laughing and dancing and all the rest."