Stage 4 Melanoma: ‘I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2011 and given nine months. I have been in remission since 2016’

Multiple surgeries, devastating recurrences and setbacks marked Maria Kilcommins’ battle with cancer – but immunotherapy treatment has made all the difference to her prognosis

Maria Kilcommins at home in Cork. She was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma in 2011. Photo: Daragh Mc Sweeney/Provision

Maria Kilcommins was “just living life as normal” with “no symptoms whatsoever” of cancer when she experienced a seizure on December 19, 2011.

The mother of four, then 38 – who lives in Charleville, Co Cork, where she grew up – was at home with her four children. At the time, her eldest was 12, her youngest was only nine months old.