White ribbons to raise funds for lung cancer research will be launched in Ireland for the first time on Wednesday in a campaign driven by two women treated in Cork for the disease.<\/p>\n
Up to now there has not been a ribbon for this cancer, even though around 2,600 people are diagnosed every year. It is the main reason for cancer deaths in Ireland, responsible for around 20%.<\/p>\n
Samantha Vaughan and Gillian Ryan were both diagnosed at young ages and, as non-smokers, were shocked to be affected by this type of cancer.<\/p>\n
Ms Vaughan lives in Laois and is being treated at Cork University Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m on a clinical trial, I\u2019m two years into this now thanks to research,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n That trial has impacted me and my family; that is why I\u2019m so into supporting research now. I want to give back.\n <\/p>\n
She has already been giving out the ribbons through her Instagram page and said: \u201cIt\u2019s fantastic, they\u2019re doing really well. They\u2019re in some shops already.”<\/p>\n
The campaign is backed by Cork-based charity Breakthrough Cancer Research. It is being launched at Leinster House by health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.<\/p>\n
The minister has previously described the two women as \u201cpowerhouses\u201d for their drive to get this campaign up and running.<\/p>\n
Ms Vaughan even has one school already involved. She urged people to look out for the ribbons or to contact the charity if they would like a box of ribbons to sell.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the funds are going into lung cancer research, that\u2019s the only reason we wanted to do this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n It\u2019s so fantastic we can make such an impact with this. We are just two little people in a big country, and it\u2019s great that this campaign could have such an impact.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
Ms Ryan, from Bandon, shared on Instagram on Tuesday that she is not only attending the launch but also getting the results of another key scan. It is now four years since she was diagnosed aged just 40.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe old Gillian died that day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut somehow in the ashes of that version of me, a new one was born. One who refuses to give up, who finds light in the darkest places, and who believes hope is stronger than fear.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ms Vaughan also advised anyone interested in cancer research to attend the charity\u2019s Cancer Revolution exhibition in Dublin. This free exhibition runs until December 31 at Stephen\u2019s Green shopping centre. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"White ribbons to raise funds for lung cancer research will be launched in Ireland for the first time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":175718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[1201,18,135,19,17,5,1202],"class_list":{"0":"post-175717","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-court-and-crime","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics-and-analysis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115533514302342959","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}