Partner's cancer ordeal has put football into perspective for Wicklow star Healy

DEAN Healy says he didn't know strength until he saw his partner, Jennifer, face up to Hodgkin's lymphoma.

- By KARL O'KANE

Jennifer is "as right as rain now," after undergoing a biopsy and six months of chemotherapy — and is a year post treatment.

They count their daughter Aifric (1), who Jennifer was pregnant with at the time, as "a blessing."

Spending every second Thursday at St Vincent's Hospital - "I can't speak highly enough of them" - put Healy's football career in perspective.

"Is a loss for Wicklow really that important when you're sitting among people that have such a positive outlook on life given the circumstances that they're actually facing?" says Healy (33).

"My partner included. We were very fortunate in terms of my partner was actually pregnant at the time with Aifric throughout the course of the treatment so we had that to focus on more so than actually the treatment itself."

But things could have worked out very differently for the young family.

Healy was driving home from training one summer evening two years ago, ahead of a Tailteann Cup game with Limerick that coming weekend, and called Jennifer, as he generally would.

'I might give it another year' was the jist of the conversation, but he was told to put that thought on hold until he got home.

"When I arrived home, she was pregnant and there was an immense joy," continues Healy.

"Just as it transpired, she was actually due in Vincent's the next morning to get the lump that she had in her neck biopsied.

"She couldn't actually get the one in her neck biopsied because she would have to be put under local anaesthetic so she ended up getting the one in her groin biopsied instead.