Years of exposure to toxic chemicals while serving in the Air Corps have left Mick Murphy practically bed-ridden.

After serving in the army and then the air corps before distinguished service in the gardaí, Mick Murphy has much to be proud of.

As well as a successful battle against cancer in his 20s, the 53-year-old also brims with pride when he thinks about his three daughters and his son.

But there is also sadness. Years of exposure to toxic chemicals while serving in the air corps have taken their toll. They have left him practically bed-ridden amid decades of constantly battling one illness after the other.

When Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin, then in opposition, labelled the air corps toxic chemical exposure scandal a “horror story” in the Dáil in 2017, Mr Murphy knew exactly what he was talking about.

The previous year, there were only two months when he wasn’t in a hospital. Then, that December, he got hit by double pneumonia and pulmonary sepsis.  As a result, he now has to use a nebuliser four times a day as well as an inhaler. He had to have an oxygen-compression machine fitted in his bedroom and oxygen tanks installed downstairs.

Mr Murphy’s horror story began just a few years after he completed his Leaving Certificate in 1989.

About four years after he started in the air corps, he started getting tired more often and experienced chest pain, night sweats, and a persistent cough.

A year after daughter Aoife was born, he got news he didn’t expect: He had the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He was only 23.

“I couldn’t believe it,” he says. “I was just floored by the news. I was never told any cause for my cancer and I suppose I just thought I had been a bit unlucky in life. It was only later in life that I heard about friends I had served with either died or ended up being really sick.

Unbeknown to him at the time, the disease is one of the cancers linked to exposure to certain industrial chemical solvents like TCE.

Other consequences of exposure to toxic chemicals include an increased risk of developing depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders.

There was no history of cancer in his family so the diagnosis came as a massive shock.

Read full article by Neil Michael at the Irish Examiner website below.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/spotlight/arid-41800226.html

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