Therese Shahmohammadi achieved a remarkable amount in her 35 years, but her proudest moment came just three weeks before her death when her first child, Cillian, entered the world.
The Co Down woman had fought a courageous battle with cystic fibrosis (CF), a life-limiting condition that had taken the lives of two of her siblings before her own birth.
Despite her health challenges, she lived as full a life as many do in twice the years.
A brilliant student, she was selected for an internship at Nasa while at Queen’s University and was training as a GP at the time of her death.
But more than that, she touched the lives of countless people with her kind heart, caring nature and infectious personality. Her funeral in Mayobridge heard that there was “only room for love” in her life.
Therese was born in January 1989 on the outskirts of the village, where her late father, Tommy White, served as secretary of the GAA club.
She was the youngest of seven children, two of whom – Martina and Joseph – also died with CF.
Therese was diagnosed at birth but enjoyed largely good health until her teenage years, when school and sporting life – she played football for Clonduff GAC – became interrupted by hospital visits.
However, an incredible work ethic saw her achieve the best GCSE results ever recorded at St Mark’s High School, Warrenpoint.
It was a conversation with a medical student in the City Hospital that prompted a desire to devote her life to helping others as a doctor.
She earned a place at Queen’s University, where she would be awarded Student of the Year in 2011, having become the first student from Northern Ireland and only person from Europe in her year to secure an internship with Nasa.
Nicola Skelly, then head of the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at Queen’s, told her funeral that “only the very best make the cut, and Nasa knew that they had found the best”.
“As Therese’s aunt Catherine told me, Therese did most things except go to the moon, and if she could have gone to the moon, she most definitely would have.”
While at Queen’s, Therese was president of the Students Working Overseas Trust (Swot), which fundraises to donate medical equipment. She also raised a lot of money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust over the years.
After graduating, she worked as a junior doctor and would travel to America again as the recipient of a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship.
She met Colm Shahmohammadi, a fellow doctor, in 2016 and they were married four years later and settled in Belfast. She was determined to start a family and they were overjoyed to welcome Cillian into the world last month.
Therese would tragically only be able to spend a few precious days with him before she entered intensive care and died on April 28.
Typically, her main concern was her husband and new-born son – she had never complained about her health and always put others first.
She seemed to draw strength from her challenges, appreciating how precious life can be, making the most out of every opportunity that came her way, and actively seeking out a few more
— Nicola Skelly
At her funeral, Monsignor Hugh Connolly said anyone who witnessed the huge crowds at her homecoming “could not but be impressed by this testimony to a wonderful, resolute and extraordinarily faith-filled young woman, who saw with such a clear vision what her mission was in life”.
Nicola said she was a “wonderful young woman, beautiful on the inside and out, brave, courageous, an inspiration”.
“She seemed to draw strength from her challenges, appreciating how precious life can be, making the most out of every opportunity that came her way, and actively seeking out a few more.”
She added: “Perhaps the most special memory and moment of all was that of becoming a mum, something she had always dreamed of. How blessed are we all that Therese’s memory will live on in her and Colm’s beautiful boy, Cillian.”
Therese is also lovingly remembered by her mother Ann, sisters Angela and Bernie, brothers Raymond and Gerard and wider family circle.