sustainable cost Brave cancer campaigner Lynsey Bennett speaks of fresh hope for specialist German treatment

Lynsey was given just 12 months to live back in November 2020

Lynsey Bennett shortly before her diagnosis

Jamie McDowell & Neasa Cumiskey

January 18 2022 10:44 AM

Brave cancer campaigner Lynsey Bennett has spoken of the impact being told she had cervical cancer five years ago had on her life and being buoyed after a recent Zoom call with a specialist German clinic.

Taking to Instagram to post pictures of herself which were taken just one month before her diagnosis in January 2017, the Longford woman revealed she remains hopeful after speaking to a doctor at a German medical centre.

On posting the pics, which show Lynsey smiling into the camera and dressed up for evenings out five years ago, she wrote: ‘It really makes you think what does someone with cancer look like?’

Last year Lynsey settled a case with the HSE and a laboratory involved in missing her cancer diagnosis.

She had been having cervical smears since 2010, but the cancer wasn’t detected until 2017.

Then in November 2020 Lynsey was told she had less than 12 months to live. She then travelled to Mexico for treatment, where the tumours were reduced significantly.

The mum-of-two started on the immunotherapy drug Pembrolizumab (Pembro) but later found out that the medication was not working as she had hoped, and decided that she would try to return to Mexico for further treatment.

However, her trips to Mexico would cost upwards of €310,000 and she would have to travel by air ambulance. Lynsey told her supporters earlier this month that she couldn’t justify the price.

In a statement on a GoFundMe page set up by a friend, Ms Bennett explained that she was looking into clinics in Germany that could prolong her quality of life, adding that she was “devastated” to have to cancel her plans to receive treatment in Mexico.

Now she has revealed she has been left with hope upon hearing treatment at the German centre will not cost as much as she had previously thought.

She wrote: ‘I am even more in love with clinic in Germany… finally got invoice last week and cost of my personal treatment plan after talking with their doctor on zoom… and it is half the price of what I thought it was going to be (after seeing negative review from a silly billy I was worried), but it’s around the €38,000 mark for 4 weeks. And more the €10k mark a week instead of the €20k a week it means if I have a good result aka: it gets things back to stable like Mexico then going back every couple of months for a week will be much more sustainable.’

Speaking of the early days of her diagnosis, Lynsey wrote: ‘Looking back over these old pictures of only a month before I was told and it really makes you think what does someone with cancer look like? You really can’t judge a book by it’s cover. You also can’t compare one cancer patient to the next.

CervicalCheck campaigner Lynsey Bennett

‘To anyone who’s not me, I’d of just looked like a girl who was out, for Xmas work party, birthday celebrations, Stephens night etc… you wouldn’t know the bleed I would wake up to the next morning out of nowhere.’

She added: ‘Personally I knew when I looked in the mirror that there was no spark in my eyes anymore, I had to nap before I could even go out, I use to cry walking up stairs, my patience was short, I was snappy, I knew my head and my body were both falling apart. But I couldn’t understand why.

‘Even now, I know people say how great I look, I love to hear it, because it gives me hope that all the hard work and sacrifice I do to try (to) maintain the way I am…14 months ago I was given 6-8 months… I shouldn’t be alive let alone as mobile as I am.’

To donate to the GoFundMe page set up to help fund Lynsey's cancer battle, visit https://gofund.me/52590d7b