JUST UNDER 12 months after she got the all-clear, Br\u00edd O\u2019Sullivan captains Mourneabbey against Kilkerrin-Clonberne in the currentaccount.ie All-Ireland Senior club final today.<\/p>\n
She has already been successful with the captain\u2019s armband twice at this stage of the competition, but this year holds a special significance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started off as a bump in my thumb. I had it for quite a while and I just put it down to getting a bang in a match,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was never sore and I thought it was nothing but finally then in February of 2020 I was at the doctor and said it in passing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That bump turned out to be soft tissue sarcoma, a cancer usually found in arms, legs, the chest, and abdomen, while hers had unusually developed in her right thumb.<\/p>\n
But initially it seemed benign and O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s doctor recommended getting a biopsy, more as a precaution than anything else.<\/p>\n
Covid-19 was just taking hold in Ireland at the time and that was a contributory factor as the procedure was delayed until the following September.<\/p>\n
But the Cork stalwart still had her sights set on her football in the days prior to going under the knife.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a small procedure under local anaesthetic and I remember at the time, it was a Wednesday and I was supposed to be playing a challenge game with Mourneabbey on the Friday,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo show how not worried I was about it, I was tempted to cancel the procedure because I knew I would have stitches in my thumb and I wouldn\u2019t be able to play the challenge game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up doing it anyway to get it over with. I got it removed on the Wednesday, strapped, played the game on the Friday and honestly did not give it a thought.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was still no alarm from her health professionals but one phone call in late October changed everything.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old was on mid-term break from St Mary\u2019s Secondary School, Mallow, where she is a PE and Science teacher.<\/p>\n
\u201cI woke up with a missed call and it was the secretary of the doctor who had removed it, asking me to ring back,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said that the doctor wanted to see me in person and could I come up that evening. At that point I was like, what\u2019s wrong, she wants to see me in person.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went up that evening with my parents and went in with my mam, she basically told me what they had removed was a rare form of cancer, called soft tissue sarcoma.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n O’Sullivan of Cork during last summer’s TG4 All-Ireland senior championship Group 2 Round 1 match between Cork and Meath at St Brendan’s Park in Birr, Offaly.<\/p>\n
Source: Ray McManus\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n
It was Ms Jenny Lynch from the Mater Private that delivered the diagnosis, with Br\u00edd and her mother Reena sitting in disbelief opposite her, while father Dan waited in the car.<\/p>\n
But it wasn\u2019t until the plastic surgeon offered up some of the consequences that the O\u2019Sullivans were left in real shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said if it\u2019s just in the soft tissue underneath the surface of your skin, it\u2019s just a case of removing more of the soft tissue,\u201d said the Killavullen native.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about it being in your thumb is it\u2019s really uncommon and you don\u2019t have loads of tissue there.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said if it\u2019s gone down as far as your nerve you will have to get some of the nerve removed and you mightn\u2019t have some feeling in your thumb. But if it\u2019s gone down as far as the bone, you might be looking at getting your thumb amputated.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Sullivan had already captained Mourneabbey to two All-Ireland titles and matched those feats with Cork, where she starred in a couple of All-Ireland successes as well.<\/p>\n
And for her, it was football she thought about before her long-term health or the other difficulties she might face in life with the potential of such a troublesome diagnosis.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor someone who doesn\u2019t play football, they would be thinking how does your mind go directly to that but when it\u2019s something you spend a lot of your time doing, your mind goes there,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole way along, I actually had been quite calm as she was explaining, if this comes up on the scan you will have to do this but it was the point where she talked about the amputation, that was the heart sinking moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing I said to my parents on the car journey home was: \u2018What am I going to do about football?\u2019 They essentially laughed in my face, thinking what? How are you even able to think about football?\u201d<\/p>\n
But O\u2019Sullivan\u2019s cancer had only reached part of her nerve and it never reached the bone.<\/p>\n
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She had surgery that December, where she had a skin graft from her arm to her index finger and the skin from her index finger was put onto her thumb.<\/p>\n
Then, at the end of January 2021, they investigated the results and weren\u2019t sure they had cleared all of the cancerous cells. It was less invasive from there and she eventually got the good news in February 2021.<\/p>\n
Now, O\u2019Sullivan receives CT and MRI scans every six months and that will become a yearly occurrence in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want people to know that nothing is too small, cancer doesn\u2019t discriminate, you are never too young or never too fit to be affected by it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\n O’Sullivan during the 2021 currentaccount.ie All-Ireland senior club semi-final between Mourneabbey and St Peter’s Dunboyne at Clyda Rovers GAA, in Cork.\n<\/p>\n
The versatile forward will surely have a major influence on today\u2019s proceedings at St Brendan\u2019s Park in Birr [throw-in 1pm, live on TG4] and she has a lot to be thankful for with a fresh new outlook at the start of 2022.<\/p>\n
Chief among those who helped her along the way are Ephie Fitzgerald and Paddy O\u2019Shea, who ensured she remained a vital part of the Cork set-up, where she trained right up until the week before her first operation.<\/p>\n
While her Cork team-mates were brilliant, so too were the Mourneabbey family, which very much includes manager Shane Ronayne.<\/p>\n
\u201cShane puts so much into it and you would like to repay that when you see him putting so much in. He will be a real positive for Cork this year,\u201d said O\u2019Sullivan.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could say that Shane is our secret to success here in Mourneabbey. We haven\u2019t looked back since he came. We have won seven out of the eight county finals, every Munster final and two All-Ireland finals since he has been
\ninvolved.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s just an excellent trainer and knows how to get the best out of everyone. Over the years, he has become a fantastic part of the team in terms of being an excellent manager. \u201cHe\u2019s a great friend for all of the players as
\nwell.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo yeah, we are lucky to have him.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n