A lung cancer survivor is urging people to pay attention to what their bodies are telling them.
Susan Leatham, who was diagnosed back in July 2021, was speaking as part of the 'Big Check Up' campaign by The Marie Keating Foundation.
It is asking people to make themselves aware of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer.
November marks Lung Cancer Awareness Month and the charity is marking it by warning that more people die from lung cancer in Ireland than any other type of cancer.
Ms Leatham told The Pat Kenny Show she was actually diagnosed with Raynaud's Phenomenon the previous year.
"As my GP described it, my body thinks I'm up in the Arctic and the blood starts to go back to your heart from your fingers," she explained.
"My fingers go white; when the blood rushes back into the fingers they're actually burning and very, very warm.
"It got to the stage where getting something out of the freezer at home would start it off, putting the bin out, I was wearing five layers of clothes in work.
"It was becoming unmanageable ... I felt I was so cold that I had pain in my bones from the cold, as I thought.
"That was an extreme case - my niece has Raynaud's and she was not suffering the way I was suffering".
CT scan
Ms Leatham said went back to her GP and she was eventually sent for a CT scan of her core.
"Something abnormal was seen on the CT, which needed investigation," she said.
"My GP rang me the next day once the results came out and said there was an appointment made for you in St Vincent's Hospital in the Rapid Access Lung Clinic.
"I went there and spoke to the consultant, and he had said 'We don't know what it is'".
Ms Leatham said they performed a biopsy on the abnormality and she underwent numerous tests.
"Back to the consultant again after about eight weeks, and it was found that I had a 2.2cm tumour in my lung," she said.
"It was decided to do surgery to remove her right lower lobe where the tumour was".
'I was one of the lucky ones'
Ms Leatham said six weeks after lumpectomy she underwent four weeks of chemotherapy.
"I would say the chemotherapy I found quite tough on the body, compared to the lumpectomy," she said.
"The doctor did say I was one of the lucky ones, that I was suitable for surgery.
"Some people aren't suitable for surgery so I consider myself very, very lucky that I was able to go ahead and have the surgery."
Ms Leatham said she was a smoker once upon a time.
"Twenty years ago, I did smoke," she said.
"The mutation that I have is actually called RET, and it affects 1% to 2% of all lung cancers.
"It is generally in younger people than the average lung cancer person, and it is in seldom or non-smokers.
"There is a large percentage of lung cancer patients that have smoked."
'Something else was going on'
Ms Leatham said her Raynaud's hasn't gone away, but it's not as bad.
"In my mind the Raynaud's and the extent that I had it, was highlighting something else was going on in my body," she said.
"I do believe my instinct was working; something was telling me something was going on.
"I didn't have the common symptoms of lung cancer which would be any respiratory problems, this is how I was affected."
Ms Leatham said she was lucky the cancer had not spread.
"I came from an era that even I remember my mother saying once about a neighbour, and speaking in a quiet voice, 'So and so has lung cancer'", she said.
"There was no treatments available... that was a death sentence at that time," she added.
More information on the Big Check Up can be found here
