This week’s episode is one I’ll carry with me for a long, long time.
Marina joined me to talk about a different kind of grief - the grief that comes before loss. The kind that lives inside uncertainty, scans, treatments, watching your child grow, and holding both hope and heartbreak in the same breath.
At 34, Marina was living her dream life in the west of Ireland - painting, teaching, growing a garden, building a future with her husband. Then came a diagnosis that changed everything: ALK-positive lung cancer. A disease she never imagined could happen to her, and one that is, for now, incurable.
In this conversation, Marina speaks with honesty, clarity and unbelievable strength about:
• the shock of diagnosis
• the years of treatment that followed
• becoming a mother after cancer
• parenting through uncertainty
• anticipatory grief
• the everyday beauty she holds onto
• and the spiritual grounding that keeps her going
I’m so grateful Marina trusted this space with her story. It’s emotional, it’s human, it’s real, and it will stay with you.
If you or someone you love is navigating cancer, or the uncertainty of life-limiting illness, there is support, community, and advocacy happening every single day. I’ve linked to Marina’s work and the Marie Keating Foundation below.