I am a native of Galway city on the west coast of Ireland and I grew up in the village of Salthill right at the edge of the Atlantic ocean.
After attending university in Galway I went on to enjoy a career in sales and marketing for over 25 years. A very difficult period of my life ensued when my marriage broke down in 2002. I struggled to make sense of everything that had happened and as I scrambled to survive, I took a career break and spent a year teaching English in Greece.
I returned to Galway in 2004 and took up a marketing position in the local university. I thrived in this job. I found that I loved working with young people in an educational and supportive role. At the same time, I was still finding life very challenging personally, but I put just my head down, buried my feelings and pushed on through. The role took me all over the world, including to India and China and I was glad of the distraction of travel. After two years I shifted focus to a domestic role and promoted the the university in schools all over Ireland. That work has definitely informed who I am now and what I love to do. It has given me the confidence to really own it.
I also pursued my lifelong interest in all things holistic alongside my career. This side of my life developed naturally. I trained in Energy Healing and Sound Healing. I did courses in Reiki, Craniosacral Therapy and attended numerous workshops throughout the years. I loved this aspect of my life but struggled to see where it would take me. I wondered how I might make a living that called upon all of my experience, my passions and my desire to be the master of my own destiny.
It was only when breast cancer knocked at my door in 2016 that everything changed and a new path started to emerge in front of me.
Life had given me many nudges before this. A car accident in 2014 had stopped me in my tracks for a month. I knew it was a warning sign. I struggled to concentrate afterwards and felt a constant low-level anxiety. I had lost my joy for life and my work, work which I had loved for many years. I felt empty and without purpose. I knew it was time for change, to start a new chapter, but I didn't know how.
Ultimately, I have cancer to thank as it ended up being the wake-up call that I needed to start afresh. I haven’t looked back since. Although it was a very difficult experience, once I got over the shock, the overwhelming emotion I felt was relief – I could stop. I trusted life to show me the way and it did.
As I recovered I was propelled in a new direction, a direction that I could never have found on my own. I really do believe that life happens for us, not to us and I look at life through that lens to this day. Cancer definitely happened for me. I have no doubt about that. Life still has its ups and downs like everyone's does, but I'm now bringing a different perspective to it.
Even if I don't always understand it at the time I know that whatever happens is happening for my highest good.
I was guided to write, and I am now a published author of two books. My second book is my story of transformation through breast cancer and is called, Gifts from the Devastation - What cancer taught me about life.
I am living proof that it is possible to start again.
I now life life from my heart with a sense of meaning and purpose.
I am passionate about supporting others to step into their purpose and self-expression.
Trusting life and working with what unfolds has been my biggest lesson to date.
The journey continues.
