‘I Was Told I Was Pregnant And Had Breast Cancer On The Same Day’

Ciara Jones is a mother of three from County Clare, a breast cancer survivor, and a serious inspiration.

After being diagnosed with breast cancer at 34, Ciara’s life took a major turn. But through her strength and resilience, she now helps others on their journey to recovery by raising awareness and sharing her story.

Ciara’s diagnosis was unlike many others as she found out that she was pregnant on the same day. She tells STELLAR that she “found out some of the best news and some of the worst news all in a couple of hours.”

Diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma, initially Ciara didn’t tell anybody else about her news. Instead, like many others, she retreated. “A lot of people tend to do,” she says. “I didn’t want to be the pregnant girl with cancer.

“But once I was able to speak about it, as it’s quite a difficult thing to speak about, I found my community.”

 

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Ciara’s journey to recovery was a bit different. As she was only four weeks pregnant when diagnosed, chemotherapy was split up into treatments before and after she gave birth.

In the earlier stages of pregnancy, she had an operation and one round of chemotherapy. To ensure she was strong enough to give birth, the rest of the treatment had to wait until afterwards. Once the baby was delivered and healthy, she felt a “false sense of recovery.”

“The emotional turmoil of finishing treatment is indescribable,” she says. “I couldn’t see anything clearly. I deleted social media, stayed away from friends and family.”

A few months later Ciara discovered her community with Breast Cancer Ireland and started sharing her journey on Instagram, “Having a community that understands to some degree what you are going through is so important.”

Ciara is one of Breast Cancer Ireland’s ambassadors. They’ve teamed up with Very and Howrad Studios to create a new PJ set just in time for Mother’s Day, to help fund their research and awareness programmes.

“Research is so important,” Ciara says. “Would I have been given the same options 20 years ago? Would I have been able to successfully go through my pregnancy? Research allowed that to happen.”

You can follow Ciara on Instagram at ciara__jones_, and learn more about breast cancer awareness here.