Vicky Phelan has opened up about her decision to "lie" to her friends and family about how long she would be in the United States for cancer treatment.
The cervical cancer campaigner is currently in Maryland as she is taking part in a clinical trial for a new drug in a bid to prolong her life.
The mother-of-two from Limerick has been in the US by herself for the past three months.
In an honest admission, she said she told loved ones that she would only be away from home for six months, but the anticipated length of her stay is expected to actually be a full year.
"Well, I lied to everybody when I told them about how long I was coming for. I told everybody it was six months, but it's actually a year," she said.
"I just thought I couldn't tell my family and my friends that I was leaving for 12 months.
"It was hard enough saying goodbye knowing that they thought I was coming for six.
"Realistically it's 12 months, I have a schedule right up to the end of January next year."
Speaking on Virgin Media's The Tonight Show, Vicky said she has been in good spirits the past few days after receiving treatment and her Covid-19 vaccine last week.
"I was a bit nervous because usually after treatment I have a few rough days of vomiting but I was actually pretty good for the rest of the week," she explained.
She added that the only thing she can do when she is hit by a day of migraines and nausea is to go to bed.
Vicky said she would love to be able to get home to her children Amelia and Darragh every three months if her treatment schedule allowed.
"My oncologist is a lovely man, he's young enough, he's got young kids himself and he knows I'm over here on my own," she said.
"He promised me that if we get a point where I'm on a full dose, because at the moment I'm still only on half the dose, and I'm tolerating it well, I still have to get to a stage where I'm not vomiting or having some reaction.
"And obviously if the tumours are shrinking, that he would look at extending the spaces in between my treatment schedule.
"He has a number of patients who are very stable who only come in for treatments then every three months.
"That would be great, it would mean I would be able to go home and just come back every three months, but I'd say I'm probably another six months off of that yet to be quite honest."
However, Vicky acknowledged that due to travel restrictions imposed as a result of the pandemic, it may be difficult for the family to travel between Ireland the US anytime soon.
"It’s getting more difficult with more restrictions coming in every week," she told presenter Ciara Doherty.
"Now there are some exceptions and one of them is humanitarian grounds, so I'm really hoping that I could get Jim and the kids over on humanitarian grounds.
"I'm not really 100% that will happen to be quite honest and I'm almost terrified about applying because I think if I'm told that they can't come over, I think that will floor me really.
"Then I was thinking maybe I could go home and maybe space out one of my cycles and I could go home for a month.
"Now that they’ve brought in mandatory quarantine at home for two weeks that wouldn’t be an option for me. So I don't know, it’s difficult to know at this stage."
The 46-year-old added that her time in the US has mostly been "fine", even though there were "very hairy" instances when she was quite ill, which is made all the more difficult by being away from home.
However, she has made one close friend called Geraldine and has moved houses to a location nearer to a group of Irish people.
Another person with Irish roots who she would "love" to run into is US President Joe Biden.
"Well I'd love that to happen obviously with the Irish connections I'd hope," Vicky said.
"Now that I'm vaccinated it might happen at some stage, I thought maybe for Paddy's Day there might be something on but of course there were no celebrations of that over here really.
"But I'd be hoping that definitely before I leave here I'd love to meet him."
