Ciara Mageean – who has died aged just 34 – fought back tears in her final interview as she accepted she might not live to 40 and would never have the family she had dreamed of.
The Northern Irish athlete admitted ‘the odds are stacked against me’ in the months before her death yesterday.
She spoke candidly about the grief of battling stage 4 bowel cancer and revealed that, after almost 20 rounds of chemotherapy, she did not expect to live a long life.
Ciara, who represented Ireland at two Olympic Games and won European gold just two years ago, became emotional as she admitted she would never have the children she had always wanted.
Ms Mageean and her long-term partner, Thomas Moran, married in a ceremony at Belfast City Hall just last month.
Speaking over the summer after completing her memoir, she said: ‘As a fit, healthy athlete, I thought that would be well into my eighties. But being diagnosed with cancer at 33 made me realise I may not be here to celebrate my 40th birthday.
‘That is something that is really tough to come to terms with,’ she said, adding: ‘I won’t take for granted the good things that I have.’
Ciara Mageean admitted that she had hoped her fitness would allow her to lead a long life until her shock diagnosis with bowel cancer at just 33
Her death comes just weeks after she married her long-term partner Thomas Moran in an intimate civil ceremony in Belfast
She added: ‘I probably will never have a family. It’s something I always wanted. That’s something that’s still so raw.
‘Even sharing that with my friends. I’m at the age where your friends are having families. My friends were nervous about telling me when they got pregnant, which was something I never wanted.
‘Two things can be true. I can be absolutely heartbroken at the reality of my life and be so overjoyed for them.
‘Now I have, I know they’re not my birth nieces and nephews, but I’ve got so many wee nieces and nephews and little bundles of joy in my life.’
Speaking about her book, My Greatest Race, Ciara said she wrote it in part because she was ‘leaving a bit of me behind, a bit of a legacy that will be there whenever I go’.
Days before her final interview with the Belfast Telegraph, she told Irish broadcaster RTÉ about the day she learned she had stage 4 bowel cancer.
She said she sat in ‘stunned silence’ with her husband Thomas and cried.
She said: ‘I probably shouldn’t have, but I Googled what the survival rate was for people with stage 4 cancer.
‘I saw that only 10 to 15 per cent of people with stage 4 cancer survive. I was like, okay, that’s not good odds.
‘But I did think, okay, why can’t I be in that 10 to 15 per cent? It’s a strange mix to have that determination and think, I’m not going to let this cancer win, but also have the sheer dread of thinking the grim reaper is right behind me.
‘I had never met somebody as young as me going through this, so there were so many emotions.’
By May this year, she had undergone 18 rounds of chemotherapy and remained hopeful about the future.
She said at the time: ‘I’m feeling fit and healthy. I’m hopeful that my prognosis can be good.
‘I don’t know if I’m scared. I don’t know if fear is the thing I feel, just complete sadness that I don’t get to have what I had before, where, like all of us, we’re planning our lives ahead.
‘I’m hopeful that I get to live into old age, but the odds are stacked against me.’
But she died yesterday surrounded by her family.
A statement on her Instagram account said: ‘At 6.30am, Ciara lost her battle with cancer surrounded by her loved ones. A beloved daughter, sister, wife, friend and inspiration to so many, she will be deeply missed,’ the post said.
A two-time Olympian, Ms Mageean made history by winning a European 1,500-metre gold in Rome in 2024.
She also represented Ireland at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the same middle-distance event, and was due to compete at the 2024 Games before an Achilles injury ruled her out, just one day before her first heat at the event in Paris.
Along with her European gold in 2024, she won European bronze in 2016 and silver in 2022, and also claimed silver at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Ms Mageean holds Irish records in the 800m (1:58.51), 1000m (2:31.06), 1500m (3:55.87) and mile (4:14.58).
She was also a camogie player.
European 1500-metre champion and two-time Olympian Ciara Mageean died yesterday, aged 34
Charlie McConalogue, Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport, said he was ‘deeply saddened by the untimely death of Ciara Mageean, a woman whose searing honesty both trackside after races and over the past couple of years in dealing with her illness secured her a place in the hearts of people all over the island’.
‘Ciara exemplified all that is good about sport and community in Ireland. Even as she won races around the globe, she remained incredibly connected to her own people in Portaferry,’ he said.
‘Her joy in winning 1500-metres gold at the 2024 European Championships was shared by all who follow sport and her bravery in dealing with the cruel illness that followed was admired by everyone. She has been a role model for the next generation of Irish athletics and, as long as races are run on this island, her memory will not be forgotten.’
Athletics Ireland said: ‘Ciara was a much-loved and inspirational figure who touched the lives of so many. Her courage, warmth and spirit will leave a lasting legacy.’
Last July, Ms Mageean was a guest of honour at the Irish National Championships, in which she hosted the ‘Run with Ciara Mageean’ event, where the athletics community paid tribute to her and her achievements.
RTÉ sports journalist Des Cahill and commentator Greg Allen both fought back tears as they talked of Ms Mageean’s triumphs on radio yesterday.
Co. Down councillor Joe Boyle, a close family friend who attended Ms Mageean’s recent wedding, said: ‘Portaferry is devastated by the loss of Ciara, who meant so much to people here.
‘She carried herself with extraordinary determination, humility and pride. But Ciara was so much more than her medals. She was warm, grounded and full of life, and immensely proud of Portaferry and the people who supported her. It was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life to be with Ciara, Tommy and her family to celebrate her wedding at Darver Castle just days ago.
‘It says so much about Ciara that it was a day of joy – a celebration as well as a goodbye, Ciara was having “the craic” as she had done in the decades I have known her. I know the people of Portaferry and Ireland as a whole will wrap her family in love in the unimaginably difficult days ahead.’
SDLP leader Claire Hanna MP said: ‘It is unbearably cruel that so soon after celebrating their marriage, her family must now prepare to say goodbye.’
Funeral details have yet to be released.
