It’s been 16 years since CityNews journalist and chief correspondent Cynthia Mulligan was first diagnosed with cancer and while she is still living with the disease, she attributes her progress to medical research and embracing life.
April is Cancer Awareness Month and two in five Canadians are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime.
Mulligan sat down with Breakfast Television’s Dina Pugliese on Friday to share her story of living with cancer since her first diagnosis in April of 2010.
When she was initially diagnosed, Mulligan documented her cancer journey in real-time for CityNews viewers.
“As a news journalist, doing hard news, I always had people sharing some of the toughest times of their lives. And I just thought I needed to give back and raise awareness and show people, demystify what it’s like and, and what you go through,” she said.
“I was determined to keep working because I needed to for my own mental health, to get through it, and keep my life as much as possible.”
Mulligan’s two daughters were six and 10 at the time in 2010, and she said she just wanted to keep life as normal as possible for them and for herself.
She also emphasized the importance of cancer research and hopes one day cancer will be a chronic disease that can be managed.
Five years ago, Mulligan said she was re-diagnosed with cancer.
“It came back, so I now have Stage 4 cancer. It had metastasized into my liver. I had two lesions in my liver. And Stage 4 was usually an automatic death sentence. You didn’t have a lot of time to live. And here I am five years later,” she said. “And it would be probably startling to many people to hear me say I’ve had some of the best years of my life the last five years.”
She credits the advancements made in research that enabled her to continue living.
“I think, I truly believe it’s because of research and because of research that I’m here now five years later after Stage 4 cancer.”
Mulligan said she is on a clinical trial. Every night, she takes medication that works to alter her cells to control and fight off the cancer.
“I’m just so lucky because it’s working …I’m never going to be completely cured at this point, but it is controlled. And because of that, it’s been under control with 100 per cent efficacy for a year,” she explained. “There’s a chart where you can see the lesions shrinking, shrinking, shrinking. And for the last year, you can’t see them at all.”
Mulligan said according to her oncologist if she goes off the medication the cancer will likely come back because the medication is just controlling the disease.
“The big question is how long will the meds work? Because we know that the cancer can outsmart them. So generally, they only last for two-and-a-half years, and I’ve been five. So I am just the luckiest person in the world …and I’m so grateful.”
She also spoke of the lessons she has learned during her cancer journey and how it has changed her perspective on life.
“It’s not easy, but what I have realized is, it’s a choice, right? And not everybody …people with mental health issues or, you know, maybe can’t or they don’t have the support systems that I have. I have so much love in my life and that really makes the difference,” Mulligan said.
“You can be afraid and you can dwell on it or you can choose to live. Because what if I have 10 months versus 10 years versus 20 years? If I’m living that time in fear, then I’m wasting the beautiful time that I have. So I really make a conscious effort to look forward and be positive.”
She said practising gratitude also plays a role in living her daily life.
“It’s simple things like I brought tulips home. I bought them at the store and I have them on the kitchen counter. And they make me so happy and I’m so grateful for those tulips. It’s the small things,” Mulligan explains.
“It’s listening to the birds on the first day of spring …seeing the magic in the world all around you and focusing on that.”
Mulligan is also grateful and thankful to her care team and every staff member at Princess Margaret Hospital who have made her experience at the facility a positive and welcoming one.
One of her daughters graduated from university a couple of weeks ago and that momentous occasion brought it all home for her. She started to cry when her daughter texted her to say she made the Dean’s List.
“I started crying, like really crying. And I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on?’”
She then realized her youngest daughter was just six years old when she had just been diagnosed with cancer and her oldest was 10.
“I remember being at a swimming pool watching them have their swimming lessons, and I had just been diagnosed. So this is 16 years ago. And I kept thinking, ‘I have to survive long enough for my daughters to give them everything that I can of myself, all the love in the world, and to make sure that I’m getting them on the right path. I have to be able to do this.’”
So when her daughter texted her and said, “‘Mom, I made the Dean’s list,’ that really hit because I did it. I made it that long.”
Another piece of advice from Mulligan to anyone who is living is cancer “don’t dwell on the numbers.”
“Because you’re not a number. You’re a person and you can, you can, you know, live your life. Just don’t dwell on the dark things. Live your life in the light.”
