Westport girl shines a light on crippling endometriosis

A couple of weeks ago the BBC did something amazing on one of their news programmes. They stopped talking about Bexit. Seriously, they did, writes Padraig Burns.

I know that is hard to accept but believe me, they did. And for 15 minutes a wonderfully informative guest talked about a condition called endometriosis (we'll call it endo from here on if that's ok), which affects women only.

There's a description online about how the pain feels and it cuts to the chase fairly quickly: 'It can feel sharp of stabbing and it usually won't go away with medication. Some women say it feels like their insides are being pulled down'.

It effects one in 10 women, which means that in the region of 176 million people around the world have the condition. That's a lot of people and I suppose what the figures mean is that we all must know someone with the condition even though we might know that they have it.

A couple of days after watching the BBC programme on 'endo' didn't I hear about a song called '1 in 10' being produced and released by Westport singer-songwriter Grainne Fahy. Immediately I presumed it was a re-working of the UB40 classic by Grainne but then someone mentioned that it was a song about living with 'endo' and being one of the 176 million women living with the condition.

Grainne is not new to making music and she's been singing and writing her own stuff for years at this stage. She even has her own little recording studio in her home in Carrabaun.

'1 in 10' very nearly never came to light. In her own words she explains the background. “I've dealt with pretty bad abdominal cramps most of my teenage life. I had accepted it was just a thing I had to deal with and move on in life. This was until early on in my fifth year of secondary school when I began to notice I was dealing with more and more pain - and not just at 'that time of the month',” she recalls.

 

Venting

Around the same time Grainne was a regular presence on our TV screens singing in an advert for a phone company. It was a very successful campaign and had over 100,000 views on YouTube. From this vantage point at the time I remember thinking that it was great to see a young local girl doing so well for herself. But not everyone agreed. A lot of people on social media were not best pleased and they weren't slow in venting.

She was called a 'Specky Bitch' and 'encouraged' to give up singing for good. And believe me there was an awful lot more vulgar and horrible comments posted. It made Grainne wonder and as she said herself it was 'a rough year'.

While all of that was going on her endo was not getting any better. It was getting mush worse. She was hospitalised twice and the pain never left her. “I was missing multiple days from school as a result of this seemingly endless pain. It wasn't until one day while I was nearly passing out from contraction-like agony that I first heard the word 'endometriosis'.”

She actually had heard about it in biology class and she knew there was no known cause, no known prevention, and no known cure.

She had her first appointment with a gynecologist what would make a huge difference to her life. Her blog explains what happened then. “After I explained my symptoms he said he was nearly certain that it was endo, and he did not beat around the bush. I had a laparoscopy scheduled for just a few weeks later. The surgery was nasty, to say the least. I had three deep keyhole incisions right through my abdominal wall, and ablation done on multiple parts of my uterus. It was over a week of post-op pain and recovery.

 

Anger

“But I never thought I'd actually feel tears of happiness well up in my eyes upon hearing my diagnosis - grade II endometriosis. I had an incurable chronic pain disease but it's the truth; I was so happy. I wasn't crazy. My pain was REAL and there was a REAL reason for it.”

The joy didn't last too long though. She had to accept there were few treatments for her pain. She had to come to terms with the outside world not taking it seriously and believing it to be fake and made up by overly sensitive young girls. There was real anger too and it was the anger that came with knowing 1 in 10 women deal with it every day - faking smiles, popping any painkillers they can get their hands on just so they can function and suffer in silence. And then there was a song to write.

She made her way back to her own little home studio and messed around until two months later there was a song when '1 in 10' was born. John Greenman, who has worked with loads of artists, including Billie Eilish, came on board as producer. The Endo Association of Ireland heard about it and wanted to be involved in getting the message out there. It's working wonders in promoting awareness of endo and last Friday night the single was launched in Blouser's, Westport.

After all Grainne has been through with the physical and mental anguish, it's wonderful to see such a vibrant young talent back in action. As she puts it herself, 'This Specky Bitch' is coming back.