{"id":557981,"date":"2026-07-19T20:43:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557981\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T20:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T20:43:20","slug":"she-is-looking-over-me-liz-kavanaghs-husband-opens-up-about-grief-from-losing-wife-to-colon-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/557981\/","title":{"rendered":"‘She is looking over me’: Liz Kavanagh’s husband opens up about grief from losing wife to colon cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kieran O\u2019Malley lost his wife Liz Kavanagh O\u2019Malley on May 17 – just weeks after doctors told the pair there were no more treatment options\"Liz<\/p>\n

Liz and her husband Kieran on their wedding day(Image: @liz.kavanagh \/ Instagram)<\/p>\n

The husband of a Galway<\/a> woman who died from colon cancer<\/a> within eight weeks of being told medics couldn\u2019t do any more has opened up about his grief.<\/p>\n

Kieran O\u2019Malley lost his wife Liz Kavanagh O\u2019Malley on May 17<\/a> – just weeks after doctors told the pair there were no more treatment options.<\/p>\n

Within hours of the devastating news, Kieran, who works in marketing, organised the pair\u2019s wedding for the following week.<\/p>\n

He explained: \u201cI organised the wedding in two hours \u2026 every single person that I rang straight away said yes, they changed things, whatever they had to do to be there, people moved mountains and they were incredibly, incredibly helpful.<\/p>\n

\"Liz<\/p>\n

Liz Kavanagh(Image: RIP.ie)<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was on the Friday, on the Tuesday, she moved into Galway Hospice and on the Friday we got married.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he had placed tissues on each person\u2019s chair, but said it was incredible how much love and joy were in the room.<\/p>\n

In an interview which will air on Sunday with Miriam <\/a>on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/a> later today, Kieran said: “Subsequent to the wedding, some of the staff told me they weren\u2019t sure if she\u2019d make the wedding (but) she was able to walk down the aisle, look stunning, she was able to enjoy the day<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the most positive room, filled with love and it was an incredibly beautiful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Kieran O’Malley and Liz Kavanagh. <\/p>\n

Throughout her battle with cancer, Liz documented the experience on her social media accounts.<\/p>\n

Kieran said: \u201cWe wanted to show even in the most incredibly sad time, there was so much love in the room – we weren\u2019t spending all day every day crying.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said her final eight weeks were surrounded by love.<\/p>\n

Kieran also revealed that before Liz received her colon cancer diagnosis in late 2024, the couple had set up a candle-making business.<\/p>\n

\"Kieran<\/p>\n

Kieran with Miriam O’Callaghan<\/p>\n

He said he will now sell a candle called \u201cLiz\u2019s light\u201d to raise money for Galway Hospice – where she passed away.<\/p>\n

In addition, the annual \u201cWalk in Green\u201d that is organised by the Connacht Hospitality Group, who Kieran works for, will take place on Liz\u2019s birthday on August 13.<\/p>\n

Speaking about his grief, he said: \u201cIt has been difficult. As I say with the firsts [attending wedding, and events without Liz] but people have been so kind and I really get so much comfort from that.<\/p>\n

“I am back playing football, and the GAA community have been amazing, every game I play the other team are coming up to me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have started grief counselling, I just think it\u2019s important to do something like that, but I am really lucky to be surrounded by brilliant people.<\/p>\n

“I have such a great network of friends, her friends warned me so this isn\u2019t the end, \u2018we are looking after you for good\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own friends have been brilliant; work have been absolutely fantastic and could not be more compassionate… You have to take one day at a time\u2026 I definitely know she is there looking over me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Want to see more of the stories you love from the Irish Mirror? Making us your preferred source on Google means you\u2019ll get more of our exclusives… To add Irish Mirror as a preferred source, simply click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kieran O\u2019Malley lost his wife Liz Kavanagh O\u2019Malley on May 17 – just weeks after doctors told the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[258,93,4500,61,60],"class_list":["post-557981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cancer","tag-entertainment","tag-galway","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557981","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=557981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}