Kieran McGeeney’s sister speaks openly about health battles in bid to ‘shine a light’ on chronic illness

The sister of Armagh’s All-Ireland winning manager Kieran McGeeney has spoke openly about living with chronic illness in a bid to “remove the stigma around it”.

Sinéad McGeeney said she wanted to use the “focus” that Armagh GAA had received since winning the Sam Maguire Cup to “shine a light” on the two conditions she suffers from.

The 48-year-old, who is originally from Mullaghbawn, was diagnosed with the inflammatory bowel disease Crohn’s when she was 17.

She also has been living with multiple sclerosis (MS) for the past nine years.

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Ms McGeeney said she was sharing her story so “hopefully today I can reach out to some people”.

Speaking on the Lynette Fay Show on BBC Radio Ulster, she recalled the weeks before the All Ireland SFC final last month and her determination to make it to the match.

“The last nine weeks have been really difficult and it resulted in a flare up the week before the match and going into hospital,” she said.

“My main concern was that I was suffering from a blockage or a partial blockage and my whole concentration was trying to get to the football because for people who don’t know in 2002 when Armagh won the All Ireland, I suffered a complete blockage in Croke Park and had morphine to get me through the game.

“I had no recollection of any of it, I had surgery that night in Tallaght Hospital where I resided for two weeks and Sam (Maguire cup) got to visit me there, which I also don’t recollect.

“So it was really important on Sunday that I got to be part of it with my family, that I wasn’t a distraction, that the whole focus was for Kieran and the boys to go out and achieve the ultimate fairy-tale, which is exactly what transpired.

In terms of living with Crohn’s disease, Ms McGeeney said: “I feel so strongly about trying to remove the stigma around it.

“Chronic diarrhoea and chronic constipation and debilitating pain - they are not hot topics to bring up around the dinner table.”

People with the disease commonly experience phases of intense abdominal pain, severe vomiting, exhaustion and bloody diarrhoea, among other symptoms

Ms McGeeney said over the years of illness, she “had to learn very quickly that this was something I couldn’t be embarrassed about, that I could function in life without that hanging over me”.

She added people “should not be embarrassed or ashamed” to seek medical advice.

And in dealing with her MS diagnosis, she said it has been a “difficult journey” after it “came on nearly like a stroke”.

“There are parts of my life where I struggled giving up some of my independence, that’s on my bad days,” she said

“On my good days, I’m really good.

“Having hidden illnesses, disabilities that are not immediately recognisable can be difficult as while it can be great when people say you are looking well, it also means people forget to ask how you are.

“I am 48, I have been unwell for nearly 32 years you become embarrassed about raising that you are feeling unwell because you feel like a broken record, that you are always saying.

“For the last two years I haven’t had one week where I haven’t been unwell - it’s always been an infection, a pain, a flare up, I was on crutches before Christmas.

“But I think it is so important people remember to reach out to people who have chronic conditions.”

She said following the All Ireland, she “wanted to use that opportunity of the focus that Armagh was getting to shine a light on these conditions that are affecting so many people right now”.

Adding that she was surrounded by “incredible” family and friends, she said: “Our Kieran said that my main message was to let people know that I was the real warrior in the house and not him”.