A young Irishwoman with incurable cancer has revealed she's planning to go to college after her treatment in the US.
Shauntelle Tynan, from Co Carlow, was diagnosed with a rare form of the illness called Histiocytosis X.
The 20-year-old is continuing to receive medical treatment in Texas - and she's now opened up about her progress.
She said: "My treatment in Texas is going well, my first appointment was with my oncologist Dr McClain and he was very impressed with my progress. He was beyond happy to see me at this level of good health.
"Over the week I will be seeing the rest of my team of specialists here and my scans, etc, will be reviewed.
"I will then be back to Dr McClain next Monday before flying home to Ireland on Tuesday and going on with my results.
"We are hopeful that my current chemo dose will be reduced and my trips to Texas less frequent.
"The goal now is to continue to improve and hopefully by next year I will be able to pursue college."
She told Extra.ie she's playing to study to study holistic and complementary therapies in college next year.
But she said she'll have to continue her treatment and taking the appropriate medication.
She added: "Unfortunately my cancer is incurable but it is stable and inactive.
"I have tumours which will never be fully gone but so long as they are inactive I’m as healthy as can be expected.
"Right now I take two oral chemotherapy medications every day along with other medications to keep my brain and gastrointestinal systems stable.
"The hope is to keep it inactive and try wean my chemotherapy to once a day.
"At this stage we don’t know if I will ever be chemo-free but the dose going forward is very low and doesn’t cause many side effects.
"So long as I remain stable I really don’t mind continuing at a lower dose."
