PAT Meredith describes herself as "more than four years past my sell by date." In December of 1991 she was ding nosed as having a cancer which required a hysterectomy. After the operation, the consultant told her husband she had three months to live.
She has beaten that deadline, by more than four years. She believes this is due to managing her own illness, going to Germany for treatment and using holistic methods at home.
But she and her family have paid a price. "We sold our home twice to release money for my treatments and dietary needs. I am £11,000 in debt and grinding to a halt."
In an era when we increasingly hear of patients who insist on managing their own illnesses, Pat Meredith has learned that it is no easy path.
From the beginning she took an active part in her fight with cancer. After the operation in 1991, "at some stage 1 was tearfully frightened and a nurse came in and she was trying to calm me down and I wailed at her but it's cancer and she calmly told me she knew that, but it was up to me now to adopt the right attitude to deal with it. She was so definite about the right attitude being all important, it set me thinking."
Pat was home before the end of December. She says her husband and son "surrounded me with love. Every move they made, told me they loved me and needed me.
Told her cancer would not respond to radium treatment, she began to see a holistic healer. "Very quickly my system settled down and I thrived."
For a long time this Dublin family had dreamed of living in the country. "The combination of shock and fright at facing my own mortality made fulfilling our dream all the more important."
They moved to a house in Clare in October, an experience she describes as "blissful, chaotic, joyous." She had beaten the three month deadline by six months.
But the new year brought bad news. A smear test led to an investigation at St Luke's Hospital and the discovery of a tumour. The hospital booked her in for five weeks' treatment including radium therapy. But she went to her holistic healer "who laid out a new regime for me, and after much soul searching, meditation and thought we decided to cancel St Luke's and go with the regime."
By December 1993, "21 months past my sell by date", the tumour had failed to spread. Within months her doctor told her it was gone.
Her reaction. "Glee, elation, shock. My God, I had succeeded. The doctor advised me not to get carried away. It was not the all clear but the tumour was definitely gone.
November brought another tumour. "Surgical removal was offered which I refused, based on a fear of exposing cancer cells to a change of atmosphere which seems at times to cause a rapid spread.
"By July 1995 I was in serious pain and anguish. The doctor in Dublin shook his head, told my husband to take me home, make me as comfortable as possible and if we were lucky we'd get about two months. Neither radium nor chemo would work.
Back in Clare, she had a good cry and then started ringing doctors from the Golden Pages to see if she could find, one who could give her hope. She did. He told her of a clinic in Germany which he thought could help her.
"Within days we were in the clinic, bewildered and frightened, much to the confusion of the staff." The treatment in the San Georg clinic outside Munich, she says, is orthodox with very low doses of chemo therapy. That treatment, she believes, was a major factor in helping her, yet again, to beat the deadline. It has also left her and her family broke.
"I've been there three times, the first two times at our own expense. The third time we got an €112 from the Mid Western Health Board Ian €112 is a form entitling the holder to go to another EU country for treatment. It must be signed by a consultant. It's said to cover all your medical bills but a week ago we got bills for 3,100 deutschmarks (£1,300)."
Getting a consultant to sign the form was very difficult, she says. One signed it once, for one visit only. Others said they could not sign as they had not seen the clinic.
She still has a tumour and needs to return to the clinic, she says, but cannot afford to. She lives in hope that the money will turn up. So far it hasn't.
"We don't have the energy left to sell up again, besides which, the house is an unfinished building site Germany took the house renovation fund plus the money borrowed."
"How much freedom of choice regarding treatment are people entitled to?" she asks. "Should that freedom of choice only apply to those who have the personal means to back up those choices?"
She is convinced that managing her illness in the way she has, was the right thing to do.
"I feel I thrive only when I'm in control and making decisions about which therapy I should accept.
"Yes, I need qualified people to lay out options for me, but then I have to decide."