Sometimes in life things can happen that don’t feel real. Your world can stop and you can feel shocked, like everything else in your life did not matter. In March of 2023 when I was in my first year of college, my Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He told myself and my four brothers around the dinner table and tried to explain what it all meant: surgeries, PSA scores … none of this was really going into my head at the moment. My mum sat in tears but explained to us that it would all be ok. After everyone had gone to bed, I went back down to the kitchen and cried.
I was very lucky in the sense that everything had gone right for me in my life – I had a wonderful, happy, healthy family, was a talented sportsman and was fresh out of landing a place in the highly coveted course MSISS through the CAO lottery. So for the first time in my life I had been brought back to reality. I felt lonely and sad, I didn’t talk to my brothers, mum or my dad enough about the situation. Being the family member of someone with a cancer diagnosis can be strange – although you are not ill yourself you carry the emotional burden and stress of that family member. It was a tough few months. I vividly remember the contrast between the elation of finishing my Leaving Cert exams in June 2022 and putting the pen down in the RDS for my final first year college exam. I was on summer holidays, yes, but my Dad was ill.
Telling some of my closest friends about my situation in May after exams felt like a weight lifted off my shoulder. They looked after me, kept me occupied, and most importantly kept me laughing. I had felt embarrassed about telling them – why should they be weighed down with this development if it isn’t even me who has cancer? Opening up to them made me so much happier and I will always be indebted to them. Talking about my situation, telling them that I wasn’t doing too well, in a safe environment, was so much more constructive than going on lonely walks by myself feeling down or anxious about my Dad. If there was something I learned it is that a problem shared really is a problem halved.
Thankfully, my father fully recovered after a summer of surgeries and hospital visits and is now doing very well with minimal repercussions. However, I am acutely aware that this is not the case for all men faced with this diagnosis. Had he not decided to follow up on blood found in his urine in September his treatment would have been delayed and this would have had a negative impact on his health and overall outlook. Many of you have lost parents or loved ones to cancer or other illnesses and I cannot even comprehend how difficult this must have been, yet I hope that in your grief you found solace through friends, family and support groups.
I first heard of Movember a few months before my Dad was diagnosed as the MSISS course society took part in a Movember campaign back in 2023. I did sea swims on Portmarnock beach and attempted to grow a mustache – though it was more like a ginger goatee. I was aware that it was for men’s mental health and cancer awareness, but I did not really know much about the cause. Fast forward to November 2024 and I was too bogged down in studying for schols and my Dad’s experience was too raw in my mind. I grew a mustache and set up a page myself to fundraise. In summer of 2024 I saw a link promoting ‘“Movember Student Ambassadors”, I decided to apply and essentially walked through my story and what the movement meant to me personally. Little did I know what was to happen next.
In September, I carried out a training course with Movember Ireland outlining the cause areas of the Foundation: prostate and testicular cancer awarness, men’s mental health and suicide prevention. We were provided with stats and figures and heard from some guest speakers including Richie Sadlier. Movember had been a thing in Trinity for about around five to ten years, but it was very society-specific and the message behind the movement was not being relayed effectively. I sent some emails to the SU President, Head of Trinity Ents Peadar Walsh and Trinity Sports captains. My plan was to have a headline Pav Friday in November to promote the cause, perhaps with some fundraising. I canvassed at the Freshers Fair (without a stall as Movember TCD had no official status) and tried to spread the message.
Myself, the other TCD Movember Ambassadors (Max Glennon and Finian King), William Mooney from MSISS, Emer Buckley (Psych soc), Evie Miano (DUBES) and Finn Hallwood began to meet regularly with Peadar and Ents members. We successfully arranged Monday sea swims in Seapoint, spread awareness on Trinity social media channels (with the help of Emer Munnelly from Welfare), spoke on Trinity FM about Men’s health (shoutout to ‘Les Mos’ and Stephen Black), raised 5,000 euro from our inaugural Movember Ball in Farrier & Draper (thank you to the Trinitones for performing) and successfully helped to manage the Trinity Movember Challenge page where the college community raised over €60,000 in aid of the cause.
We had planned to organise guest speakers but unfortunately were unable to do so, but it is something that we would like to do for our 2025 campaign. We also were unsuccessful in our bid to claim CSC society status, however, this is something that we will continue to strive for and I thank the 600 people who signed our petition in November. That being said, we did manage to claim official status in the form of a subcommittee under the umbrella of Trinity Ents. I am the Movember TCD chairman for the upcoming academic year, and if you would like to get involved or help out please contact our instagram page Movember TCD. We have big plans for 2025 and I am excited for what is to come.
As I look back on the work that we have done, I am immensely proud of the impact that we had and the awareness that we raised. By promoting this cause on campus, we can help men to break down the societal barriers regarding dealing with emotions, support those who are struggling and show those affected by prostate, testicular or any forms of cancer diagnosis that there is a group of people in Trinity who care about you, many of whom having similar experiences to yourselves. As I enter my final year at Trinity, I hope that I can leave behind an organisation that could have helped me during those difficult months during first year and will continue to help the young men of Trinity College.
