Ciara Mageean showcases powerful mindset on heart breaking cancer diagnosis

Very powerful

Only last year, the Irish middle-distance runner revealed she received devastating news on Christmas eve that she might only live 2-3 more years due to stage-four bowel cancer.

Mageean explained: "I found out on Christmas Eve that the consultant probably realistically feels that I might have two or three years left."

However, the European champion is determined to not let her diagnosis define her.

In two interviews this week, the 34-year-old has opened up about her mindset and outlook on coming to terms with the heart breaking news.

Irish Times Interview with Ciara Mageean

In a touching interview with journalist, Malachy Clerkin from The Irish Times, Mageean spoke candidly of her experiences to date.

Speaking on the devastating prognosis, Mageean outlined it has spurred her on to take part in RTE's adventure series "Uncharted".

The Portaferry native showcased her strong outlook and is choosing to make the most of every day.

"I’ve come to realise that with cancer, you can just be unlucky. I’m just really bloody unlucky. So I walked out of that appointment...we all had tears in our eyes.

"I was like, ‘Well, do you know what? If I’m going to f**king die, I’m going on that adventure’."

The 2024 European Championships gold medallist winner went on to explain she wants to make the most of big days, like her wedding day with fiancé Tommy.

"Stressing and worrying about it isn’t going to change it. You’re so entitled to those emotions obviously. But you could lose yourself to it," Mageean powerfully explained.

She later admitted: "I don’t know what this journey is going to look like. I don’t know at what point I’m going to get sick.

"Tommy and I are engaged but we’ve never had any rush on the wedding. But now I was like, ‘Do we need to get a move on here?’

"Because I don’t want to be that girl who looks like a skeleton on her wedding day. Or having to be in a hospital bed with Tommy beside me and me in a wedding dress in the hospital bed.

RTE interview with Ciara Mageean

Following her interview with the Irish Times, Mageean appeared on RTE Radio One as a guest with Brendan O'Connor.

Emotionally, Mageean revealed how she felt the day she found out she was diagnosed with cancer.

She said: "I'll never forget that day on the 20th of May. Going in to have what I thought was a routine little scope and I wouldn't find out results for a bit after. But instead on that very day, I found out that I had cancer.

"I was sitting in that room with Thomas and Máire, my big sister, who came with me. My colorectal surgeon told me it was stage four. That the cancer was in my bowel and was quite significant in my bowel. It had spread to my liver and was quite significant in my liver. And there was a small amount in my lungs.

"For the next few days, it was rough. Very emotional. Really unknown in terms of 'will I die in the next few months? Will I die in the next few years? Do I have longer?'

"I probably shouldn't have but I googled what was the survival rate for people with Stage four bowel cancer. I saw that it was 10-15% of the people who have stage four survive.

"I thought, 'okay, that's not good odds. I'm not a betting woman but I wouldn't have taken those odds for living.'

"But I did think, why can't I be in that 10-15%? That research is based on maybe an older population. I'm young and fit and healthy. I have no comorbidities. I can fight this.

The Irish Olympian continued: "I have the side effects of it on my hands. People are often surprised how healthy I look, because I've been through so much chemo and I have stage four cancer.

"I'm here chatting to you, I'm fit and healthy. I'm a couple of weeks post-chemo with the side effects of that, in the immediate term of feeling sick.

"Christmas, I was told after my first 12 rounds of chemotherapy that surgery wasn't an option, and radiotherapy wasn't an option. For the first time, I asked my oncologist, 'Are we talking timelines?' At that point, he gave me 2-3 years.

"For many people, they ask, 'How did you do Uncharted after that?' I walked out of the hospital that day, and I said an expletive, bleep it, I'm going to Costa Rica and I'm having fun.

"Because, if I'm going to die, I'm fitting as much living into the years that I have left. That's how I feel."

You can read the whole RTE report here