An Irish mother diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer but expecting her third child has set up an online diary as a legacy to her children so they can remember her forever. The blog, which she set up on Google’s Blogger platform, is called “Stage 4 breast cancer..? But I wanna live forever!”
Thirty-one-year-old Catriona O’Loughlin from Arklow, Co Wicklow, wrote on her blog: “I have this little plan in my head to defy all odds and live a long time… Let’s hope that works out!”
O’Loughlin was diagnosed just weeks after her 31st birthday when she was 14 weeks pregnant. She began the blog in June.
O’Loughlin’s blog is an online diary that lovingly details her time with her husband Derek, son Daniel and daughter Caitlin. In the blog, she details her ongoing battle with cancer and it illustrates keenly her bravery and dignity.
A self-confessed “googler”, her use of technology went into “overdrive” once she was diagnosed and she recently bought an iPhone to keep connected at all times. She says in the blog that she was overwhelmed by the messages of support she received in the form of emails since going public with the blog last week.
She wrote: “One of my biggest worries about dying is that because my children are so young, they might not remember me. I hope that by having this blog to read when they are older it will it will help them to understand what happened.”
