Caoimhe was diagnosed with a brain tumour in October 2025 after an optician noticed bleeding behind her eye.
She has since had chemotherapy, thirty rounds of radiotherapy, and two operations to help fluid drain from her brain, and has been told she has months to live.
Through all this she has had another battle on her hands: trying to access her ill health retirement pension from her former employer, the HMRC.
Her husband Ollie said they spent hours on the phone and exchanged many emails, but that HMRC submitted paperwork to Civil Service Pensions and then Capita.
He believes it was a data transfer between civil service pensions and Capita on 1 December that seems to have caused the issue.
“We spent hours on the phone with them and originally they said that it was all fine and it would be treated as a priority and to expect more correspondence closer to her retirement date in January (2026),” he said.
“But that wasn’t actually the case. So on 12 January we rang Capita again and after four hours on hold we managed to speak to somebody. That request has never actually got through.”
The couple, who live in Claudy, County Londonderry, said they have now received a lump sum but it is not correct and they believe they are owed more money possibly up to £15,000.