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Declan Costello from Rush who is undergoing immunotherapy for cancer says “The comback is stronger than the setback.” Photograph Moya Nolan<\/p>\nDECLAN COSTELLO was in Galway in mid-December 2024, working as a Santa in the run-up to Christmas, when he developed a \u201cbad cough\u201d.<\/p>\n
The cough got so bad that he had to stop working and return to his home in Rush, Co Dublin. As the cough worsened, he made an appointment with his GP.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was that time of year when a lot of people were going to their doctor with colds and flu,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy doctor prescribed a cough medicine and said to try it for a few days to see if it would work. It didn\u2019t, and shortly afterwards, I started losing my appetite.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Christmas approaching, Costello decided to get through the holiday period \u2014 even though, at this stage, the smell of food or cooking was turning his stomach. He returned to his GP in January 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said to me, \u2018I have a note in my file that if you came back to me in the same condition, I would send you for tests immediately\u2019,\u201d Costello recalls. \u201cThe thing was, I had my bag packed when I went to see him \u2014 we were both on the same wavelength.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old went to Beaumont Hospital for a series of tests: Bloods, scans and biopsies. A tumour was found in his lung. \u201cThe cancer had spread to my liver \u2014 it was stage four lung cancer.\u201d<\/p>\n
On hearing the bleak diagnosis, the father-of-two says he felt like he\u2019d been \u201chit by a sledgehammer\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne consultant we went to gave me six months to a year, and I thought, well, he must be right, because of how sick I was feeling at that point,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t eating. I was still losing weight \u2014 I\u2019d lost over three stone by then.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, his \u201csurvival instinct\u201d soon kicked in:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n \u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m going to get better, and I\u2019ll fight this\u2019. If I lose the fight, I lose the fight, but I will fight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
His oncology team, led by Jarushka Naidoo at Beaumont Hospital, came up with a plan to treat his cancer with immunotherapy.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmunotherapy is a new type of medication that activates a person\u2019s immune system against their cancer. It is a rapidly evolving and complex area of practice that requires guidance from an expert lung cancer team,\u201d explains Mr Gerard Fitzmaurice, consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at St James\u2019s Hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDeciding on a patient treatment plan is a complex process that involves completion of a number of investigations, called staging investigations, to determine the type of cancer and best approach to offer curative treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Declan Costello from Rush who is undergoing immunotherapy for cancer says “The comback is stronger than the setback.” Photograph Moya Nolan<\/p>\n
Costello\u2019s immunotherapy began in the first week of March 2025, and he receives treatment every three weeks. A scan in mid June revealed his tumours had shrunk by 2.5cm, and a subsequent scan last month showed the tumour in his liver had reduced again, with the mass in his lung remaining stable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat news was like winning the lottery for me,\u201d Costello says.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust to hear the word \u2018reduced\u2019. It didn\u2019t matter by how much, really. I just felt like what we were doing was working.\u201d<\/p>\n
He will continue with his immunotherapy every three weeks and is due to have another scan to determine his progress in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get my treatment on a Thursday, and it wipes me out for the day on Friday and a little bit of Saturday,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut I\u2019ve been keeping active. I walked 30 miles in September for the Irish Cancer Society \u2014 I walked one mile every day, and we raised over \u20ac3,000. I wanted to walk with a little bit of a twist, so a group of us used to meet up and I gave a little bit of a history of Rush as we were walking.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also regularly visits the palliative care unit in St Francis\u2019 Hospice in Raheny.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a long-time member of the Rush Musical Society, and on Daffodil Day [March 28] this year, one of the members told me about the palliative care programme at the hospice,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I heard the word palliative, like many people, I just thought \u2018end of life\u2019. However, they have an absolutely outstanding day patient programme, and I visit once a month to receive a massage or reflexology treatment. Additionally, I can speak with a chaplain, occupational therapist, physiotherapist, or nurse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s absolutely fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before being diagnosed with lung cancer, Costello worked five days a week as a caretaker in his local community centre, and he also occasionally refereed football matches.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually passed a fitness test for refereeing in August 2024. I\u2019ve always been fairly active,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd now, I think I\u2019m lucky as I\u2019ve been able to stay a bit active with walking.<\/p>\n
\u201cI also go down to the sea every morning. I can\u2019t swim, but I kneel down and I duck under the water three times and get out. When I told my nurse, and she suggested I could see the three times as healing my \u2018mind, body and soul\u2019, and I thought that was a lovely way of looking at it, so that\u2019s what I say to everyone now.\u201d<\/p>\n
November is lung cancer awareness month
\n If you have any questions or concerns about cancer, contact the Irish Cancer Society\u2019s freephone support line on 1800 200 700, or email SupportLine@irishcancer.ie. For more information, visit cancer.ie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DECLAN COSTELLO was in Galway in mid-December 2024, working as a Santa in the run-up to Christmas, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14613,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-127230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-fitness-exercise-work-life-balance-healthy-eating","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}