As you read this piece this August day,there is someone in this city or county who is awaiting the results of a breast cancer check; someone for whom the watched phone represents both a terror and a salvation. Awaiting that news is the norm for so many every week and every day for so many families. As any family who has been touched by breast cancer will know, the waiting, the diagnosis, the fear are all part of the process. There is the fear of the known and the unknown; the potential that plans carefully honed will have to be shelved. Or not.
We are fortunate here in the west to have the National Breast Cancer Research Institute and the Breastcheck facilities which have done so much to detect and combat the condition. We are blessed to have the skilled medical staff who daily undertake those tests and research so that maybe in a generation or two from now, the terror and impact of the condition will not be what it is now.
Those staff and colleagues are in sadness this week at the passing of the man who made all of this possible. The name of Prof Fred Given will be writ large in the social and medical history of this part of the world, because it was his vision and drive that made possible the advances that have enabled us to have the NBCRI here at the heart of our community.
Over the past week, I have been inundated with people telling me of the admiration that they had for Prof Given, and in particular for the unassuming manner he had for someone so skilled and so knowledgable. They spoke in particular of his care for their mothers, their grandmothers; of taking time out to check on them. He knew them by first names and their survival stories enabled him to have the drive to go on to do what he did for the west of Ireland.
He was unbelievably supportive and kind and always showed enormous respect for patients, relatives and staff. Remember too that he did this in facilities that were in the main rudimentary and well short of the best in practise. He knew that this region could be the hub for such a centre of excellence, inspiring research and studies that would reverberate worldwide.
His work is carried on and led by Prof Michael Kerin who has engaged the public in the campaign to defeat breast cancer. As a result, there is great love for the NBCRI and its many fundraising campaigns. He said this week that Fred was a champion of the power of research; a man who made an enormous contribution to healthcare.
His colleague Oliver McAnena said that Fred was a visionary who throughout his career had a passionate commitment to patient care, particularly the management of breast cancer research, for which he believed Galway University should be an international leader, and advancement of surgical excellence such that patients from the West of Ireland were no less compromised than anywhere else.
He was fearless in his intention of bringing the highest standards of surgical care to patients in Connacht and beyond. He was successful in these endeavours.
He was an outstanding surgeon and an exceptional teacher and mentor to generations of medical students and junior doctors.
Chairperson of the National Breast Cancer Research Institute, Caroline Loughnane told the Advertiser this week that Prof Given was a visionary in the field of breast cancer research and, seeing the need for more comprehensive research, in 1991 he founded the National Breast Cancer Research Institute to increase awareness, improve access to treatment and conduct international class research into breast cancer.
“Fred’s legacy will live on in the ground-breaking research he instigated, now such an important part of the work at Galway University Hospital and the University of Galway,” she said.
Professor Fred Given is survived by his wife Kathryn, his sons John and Mark, his daughter Elaine, his grandchildren and a wide circle of family and friends. This week he was laid to rest in Bushypark Cemetery behind St James Church. From there, you can see out across the lakes and the islands and the county.
Out there are tens of thousands of homes whose kitchen tables have heard the discourse around the possibility of a cancer diagnosis. Fred Given, in his life, gave so much life and hope to those people through the unselfish sharing of his skills.
Understandably, his family and friends are in deep grief at the passing of a beloved man who did so much for so many. To them at this sad time, we thank them for empowering him; and for providing him with the support and love that enabled him to be the person he was.
I hope that in time, this sadness will thaw with the increased realisation of the great good he did for us all now and well into the future. May he rest in peace.
