"I suppose every part of me, I wasn't well, I was physically drained, I had lost loads of weight, I wasn't sleeping, and it crept up on me very quickly. I'd had some kind of virally things, but didn't think they were significant until I was hit with this. I suppose it was like a bolt from the blue, where I was knocked sideways and couldn't keep going."
"It was a tough decision in many ways, but easy to take in the end, and once I took it, and again, it was kind of interesting on that day, on that Thursday, and that was a week before the announcement was made, so we had a long period of sort of that interim. But when I took that decision, I actually wrote down the decision, I wrote the press release that would announce it, and I wrote, 'Don't let anyone change your mind'."
Ms McGuinness was Fine Gael's nominee for the presidency but withdrew in August on health grounds after being diagnosed with a severe case of post-viral syndrome. She experienced profound physical exhaustion, rapid weight loss, sleeplessness, and a sudden deterioration following viral illness. She said the condition struck like a bolt from the blue, leaving her unable to continue campaigning. While hospitalised she learned a close friend had died, which influenced her assessment of whether she could compete effectively. She wrote and prepared her withdrawal press release, including the line 'Don't let anyone change your mind', and noted others feared the worst during her recovery.
Read at Irish Independent
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]