Ovarian cancer: ‘My mother, my younger sister and I were all 50 when we were diagnosed’

Despite losing her mother to cancer, Orla Hyland wasn’t prepared for her ovarian cancer diagnosis, or learning she had the ‘cancer gene’. She talks about her symptoms, staying positive and being ‘the canary in the coalmine’ for her relatives

Orla Hyland is undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Photo: Frank McGrath

Emily Hourican

For Orla Hyland, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021, the story starts back in 1981. “Our lovely neighbour collected my younger sister and me from school on the last day before the Easter holidays. She was crying when she arrived. She said our mum was in hospital. Mum died on Easter Sunday just over a week later,” she recalls.

“We visited her in hospital that morning and stood outside her room, staring in the door while adults panicked. A nurse told us to go outside to the garden and we made daisy chains for Mum while we waited. My tummy knotted tightly that morning and still hasn’t really untied.”