Honour Your Heroes - Donal Connor
In 2010, Sligo famer, Donal Connor from Easkey, set out to get a diagnosis of why he was constantly hoarse. Two consultants and two years later with no answers, he was at a farmers mart but couldn't make his voice heard over the noise. He was utterly despondent and knew he had to find answers.
He was advised to visit a consultant in the Beaumont Private Clinic where he was diagnosed on his first visit as having larygneal cancer and began a long series of surgeries, procedures and radiotherapy to try and shrink the tumour.
Another few years went by and in 2014, when none of the interventions had worked, Prof Paul O'Neill, Head and Neck Surgery, told Donal that the only solution was a complete laryngectomy. This would be a huge surgery but one he would gladly undertake if Donal was up for it.
The operation went ahead and Donal had muscles removed from his stomach to rebuilt his neck and skin grafts from his thighs to provide a new layer of skin and a place through which he would eat, drink and breathe.
His wife Mary spoke with great passion and emotion about all that he had gone through at the Honour Your Heroes reception. She thanked Prof Paul O'Neill for the huge confidence he gave them in taking on this life altering operation and his assurance that everything would go smoothly. Today Donal is cancer free and counsels other patients who are about to undergo the same operation, often travelling to Dublin to meet them and put them at ease.
He is pictured with Emma Devoy Flood, Head and Neck Cancer Clincial Nurse Specialist who collected his award on behalf of Prof. O 'Neill.
