Avril Tierney

Avril Tierney is a mam, wife, daughter, sister and friend from Dublin but living in Portarlington, Laois since 2005. She is a counsellor, psychotherapist and a life coach and also works for a charity called Extern.

In 2019 at the age of 41, Avril was diagnosed with Triple Negative Breast Cancer.  After primary treatment of chemotherapy, surgery and radiation, Avril’s status changed to a stage 4 diagnosis as a scan showed that the cancer has spread to her upper lung.  She had surgery to remove the nodules combined with more chemotherapy but unfortunately following another scan it was discovered that there was further spread in the lung, these tumours were not removable.  This means her disease is now treatable but not curable.  For the last 2.5 years Avril has had immunotherapy and chemotherapy every 2 weeks.  At present all is stable with the cancer and Avril is living really well with the disease and treatment.

In 2023, Avril became a patient ambassador for Breast Cancer Ireland, helping to raise awareness around metastatic breast cancer and the importance of continued funding of research helping to make this a chronic liveable disease.

“When I became ill in 2019 & after the initial shock eased, I discovered living in the present moment, letting go of the little things, the power of hope and positivity but mostly the immense resilience & strength that is present inside of me as a powerful driving force”