10/11/2026
"I had to interrupt and say, ‘Sorry, when you say tumour, do you mean cancer?’"
Aged just 21, Lana Nolan, a nursing student from Glasnevin, Dublin, was feeling very tired and began experiencing stomach pain.
“I didn’t think much of it to be honest," says Lana, who is sharing her story for World NET Cancer Day. "I just put it down to being a bit run down. I was in the middle of placement, working and playing football.
"All week, I’d been in my nursing placement, and my legs were going numb. By the Sunday, I was working in my part-time café job, and my legs were so numb I couldn’t stand up or walk around. I rang my mam and she said, ‘You’re going to the doctor tomorrow’. So I did.”
The next day, Lana went to her GP and explained her symptoms.
“My GP said it sounded like my appendix and made an emergency referral to send me straight to the ED in Connolly Hospital. They did some tests and could see my appendix were inflamed. I’d need surgery. Thankfully, my surgery went well and I was told they’d want to see me again in six weeks’ time.
“Within days of being discharged, I got a letter to say come back in three weeks for an in-person check and the six week check would just be an online call. I didn’t know any of this at the time, but they had found a tumour on my appendix when they removed them and sent that off for further analysis. I went back in for the three-week check in on my own."
Read Lana's story in full: https://brnw.ch/21x71e8
