At just 32 years old, Caoimhe Donoghue was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer.
Co-founder of Irish skincare brand Doctrine, Caoimhe shows so much strength in maintaining a positive attitude since that hard news in 2025 and now she’s looking at ways to give back to others.
Here, Caoimhe shares her story with us.
Can you share your journey to diagnosis and recovering from stage 3 breast cancer.
In October last year, at 32, I noticed a change in my right boob. I can’t say it was a lump. It was more an area that felt hard, almost underneath my boob.
I had always been good at checking myself. My mum had breast cancer twice, although thankfully it wasn’t hereditary, and thankfully she is still with us, so I was always conscious of checking myself in the shower. But this time I didn’t find the change while checking myself. I found it completely by accident.
I was leaning forward, attempting to burst a blackhead on my boob, gross, I know, but also a guilty pleasure of mine! Whatever way I was holding my breast, something just felt strange. I remember standing in front of the mirror afterwards, lifting my arms to see if I could see anything, and I noticed the skin looked different. The only way I could describe it was that it looked as though the skin was catching on something inside my boob that I couldn’t see.
I was only seven months postpartum, so it would have been very easy to put the change down to my body still being different after having a baby and dismiss it. But my gut was telling me that something wasn’t right, so I made an appointment with my GP.
I’m very lucky to have a fantastic doctor who listens. He examined me and even said himself that he could barely feel anything, but because of my family history he referred me to breast specialist Mr Michael J Allen at the Hermitage. I was seen within a few weeks and sent for a mammogram and biopsy.
When I got the results on 22 December, I wish I could say I was completely shocked, but I wasn’t. My gut had told me from the very beginning that it was cancer. Just another reminder to always trust your gut instinct.
Mr Allen actually applauded me for finding it because it wasn’t easily detected. It was ductal carcinoma, stage 3 breast cancer. It had spread to my lymph nodes, but thankfully it hadn’t spread elsewhere.
It was aggressive, and by the time I started treatment in January, the tumour had doubled in size.
I started treatment just a few days after my 33rd birthday, with six rounds of chemotherapy, followed by surgery to remove my right breast and more than 20 lymph nodes, and then 15 rounds of radiotherapy.
The thing I think people can forget is that you don’t simply finish your last round of treatment and go back to normal. I’ll be on treatment for the next five years. It’s not as invasive as chemotherapy, but it’s still a journey, with regular hospital appointments and ongoing treatment. So I still have a journey ahead of me, but I feel like I’ve climbed the mountain and I’m coming down the other side.
During this time, what did you turn to, to bring joy into your life?
The way my chemo treatment worked was that I’d get chemotherapy on a Tuesday and by Thursday I was usually bedbound for about four days. I was really lucky that I could go and stay with my mam and dad for those really bad days. It wasn’t fair on my husband to try to mind me and two kids when I was so unwell, so I’m forever grateful to my parents and let’s be honest, mainly my Mam – who looked after me.
Those were my worst days. Honestly, getting out of bed to cleanse my face and put on a bit of moisturiser felt like I’d climbed a mountain. But it made me feel like me, so I kept doing it.
I’d lie in bed and watch Netflix. My brain couldn’t concentrate enough to watch anything new, so I’d watch shows and films I’d seen a hundred times before, or reality TV that didn’t require too much concentration. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills was a firm favourite.
I also spent hours on TikTok. I fell into foodie TikTok, watching people out and about in restaurants all across Ireland. I really missed eating out and food just didn’t taste the same during treatment. So I started making a list on my phone of places I wanted to eat, and I told my mam and my best friend Niki that we’d start ticking them off one by one once I was feeling better.
When I started feeling better and could go home to my girls and my husband, just being around them again felt amazing. I started taking so much pleasure in the really mundane things that I’d never given much thought to before like getting the girls up, making breakfast, even changing nappies. Things I would have previously done on autopilot suddenly felt like a privilege. I was just so thankful that I was well enough to do them.
On hard days when I was anticipating the next cycle, I’d put my headphones in, blast my music and take the dogs for a walk. The difference that some fresh air and loud music can make should never be underestimated.
I know this won’t be the same for everyone going through treatment, but work actually gave me a lot of joy during that time. It gave me something to concentrate on and people to chat to who didn’t necessarily ask me about cancer. We were still launching new products, working on the Pink Divinity Balm and doing all the normal things that come with running a business. It made me feel normal again.
And, of course, I treated myself. You want a bag of jellies? Go for it, you’re going through cancer. An extra biscuit with your tea? Take it.
What advice do you have for other women and men in the early stages of their breast cancer journey, do you have any words of encouragement?
I know it sounds cliché, but honestly, just take every day as it comes. When you’re first diagnosed, there is so much information thrown at you that it can feel completely overwhelming. I found it much easier to just concentrate on what was happening that week rather than thinking, “Jesus, I have five years of this ahead of me.” Also if you can bring someone to your medical meetings who can take notes for you. There is so much information given to you and your not taking it all in.
Listen to your body too. If you’re tired, go for a rest. Don’t feel guilty about it. If you feel like getting up and going for a walk, go for a walk. And if you want to stay in your pyjamas all day and watch Netflix, do that too. It’s also important let people help you. You will not get a medal for doing it all yourself.
My biggest thing would be to just be kind to yourself. You’re going through cancer you’re allowed to have a few bad days.
Another piece of advice I have, not necessarily for people going through cancer but for the people around them who sometimes don’t know what to do, is simply to check in. Unfortunately, cancer has been prominent in my family over the past number of years.Parents, aunts, uncles and now me. I think sometimes people are afraid of saying the wrong thing or don’t know what to do, so they end up doing nothing.
Why is it important for you to continue to give back now?
I’m one of the lucky ones in that I’m here and I’m able to tell my story. Breast cancer outcomes are so much better today than they were in the past, and that’s because people have raised awareness and, importantly, raised money for research into how we prevent, detect and treat it.
I want to keep that going. If the money we raise through the Pink Divinity Cleansing Balm campaign can help fund research, support someone going through treatment or improve outcomes for another woman in the future, then that means a lot to me.
I also think it’s really important that we keep talking about breast cancer, particularly as more younger women are being diagnosed. I was 32 when I was diagnosed and I never thought for a second that I would be dealing with breast cancer at that age.
I want women to know their bodies and to trust their instincts. It doesn’t always present as a lump. For me, it was a slight change in the breast. If something doesn’t feel or look right, get it checked.
