An Inishowen woman who has battled leukaemia is continuing her fight for improved cancer care services in Donegal by staging a protest.
Roseena Doherty Toner from Clonmany has stationed herself outside the gates of Letterkenny University Hospital to highlight her campaign for improved facilities.
Roseena, who was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid leukaemia (AML) two years ago, underwent a life-saving bone marrow transplant in early 2022. She has been in remission for the past two years.
The mum-of-five has experienced cancer care services in Galway and at St James’s Hospital and receives ongoing care in Letterkenny.
Her experiences led her to launch a campaign for more facilities and services in Donegal. During her treatment, she has met with the former Health Minister Stephen Donnelly and with LUH management.
Roseena’s campaign for Letterkenny is as much for the staff as it is for the patients, she said.
“The staff are amazing, but at the time (of treatment) they had a 13 bed ward and a lot of cancer patients were being treated in the main hospital, because 13 beds it’s not enough. Since that they have upgraded to a 24-bed, which is brilliant but I would safely say that there are still cancer patients in the main hospital,” she said.
“You can become unwell at the flip of a switch and you need to be somewhere where the nurse knows what to do, unfortunately the whole hospital is not trained in cancer care. It’s specialist training.
“The day unit is just too small. If they had more chairs and facilities it would just ease the pressure.”
Cllr Gerry McMonagle, Roseena Toner and Cllr Denis McGee at today’s protest. Photo North West Newspix
Last month it was revealed that cancer treatment waiting times at Letterkenny University Hospital are the worst in the HSE west and north west region.
Less than a third (31%) of patients receive their first chemotherapy appointment within the recommended timeline.
Roseena believes that a large standalone cancer unit will play a role in improving wait times.
Roseena has also written to the new Health Minister, Jennifer Carroll MacNeill, seeking support for her campaign.
“The service needs to be updated and upgraded and I hope that me doing things like this will help,” Roseena said.
“Talking didn’t make any difference so now we are resorting to protesting.”
Roseena plans to continue her protest in Letterkenny today until 3.30pm
Roseena Toner with cancer patient Jane Talbot supporting the protest
