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When I met Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon in a coffee shop in Douglas in December 2024, she was in the middle of an exhausting period of treatment. What I remember most is how calm and witty she remained—and how carefully she reviewed the words we planned to publish together. It is difficult to imagine a “better person” to have worked with.
A collaboration shaped by expertise and lived experience
I met Sarah to discuss a bowel cancer awareness special edition of the Irish Examiner’s Feelgood section. She brought both her medical knowledge and her experience as a patient to the work. She was diagnosed with metastatic colorectal cancer in November 2014, aged 37, when her third child was eight months old. She responded well to targeted therapies and returned to a busy life.
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A routine scan in May 2024 later found that the cancer was active again. Even during the difficult treatment period that followed, Sarah took time to go through the copy before publication. The Feelgood special edition appeared on March 28–29, 2025, and included her own account, published on March 29.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →In that article, she wrote: “The care and compassion of the healthcare staff we encounter are also hugely important and can be life-changing, particularly on a bad day.” It was a reminder that her advocacy was not only about awareness of cancer, but also about the human experience of care.
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Making bowel cancer easier to talk about
Sarah used her professional knowledge and personal experience to encourage people to take bowel health seriously. She wrote, “I’m one of a growing number of young people with bowel cancer,” and urged readers to “Spot the symptoms.” In the remembrance, she put the discomfort some people feel about screening into characteristically direct terms: “People happily stand in the middle of the street manhandling their dog’s poo with a flimsy plastic bag, yet a potentially life-saving interaction with our waste product seems a step too far for some.”
Her own article listed changes in bowel habits, blood in stool, abdominal pain or persistent bloating, unexplained weight loss, tiredness despite rest, and unusual changes as reasons to make an appointment with a GP. That was personal advocacy, not a substitute for current clinical advice.
Screening and symptoms are different pathways
For current information in Ireland, the HSE says its free BowelScreen programme is for people aged 57 to 71. Eligible participants collect a stool sample at home and return it for a laboratory test for tiny traces of blood, which can be associated with polyps or early-stage cancer. The HSE’s guidance was last reviewed on 1 June 2026: BowelScreen: bowel cancer screening.
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- If you are eligible and have no symptoms: BowelScreen is a routine screening programme.
- If you have symptoms: Contact your GP rather than waiting for your next screening test. Screening is not a diagnostic response to symptoms.
A normal screening result does not rule out future risk or mean that new symptoms should be ignored. Sarah’s 2025 article described the guidance as it stood then; for present-day eligibility and what to do next, follow the HSE’s current advice.
A doctor, advocate and founder
Sarah founded the Women in Medicine in Ireland Network in 2017 and worked as a primary care clinical advisor with Ireland’s National Screening Service. In a 2023 Irish Examiner interview, she described the network’s spirit simply: “We lift each other up and reach out to each other.”
That line also captures the generosity colleagues and readers remember in her work: she used what she knew, and what she had lived through, to make it easier for others to speak up and seek help.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Her final words—and a tree to remember her
Sarah’s final blog post, dated September 20, ended with a request not to describe her as having fought a “brave battle”: “I have minimal faith or spirituality, but I do know that if anyone uses the words "brave battle" in relation to me, I WILL haunt them.” The humour and emphatic capital letters are hers; it is a line to remember in her own terms.
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Remembering Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon
Sarah died on Wednesday, as reported in the Irish Examiner remembrance published October 1, 2026. I think back to that Douglas coffee shop, to her wit in a punishing season, and to the care she gave a project intended to help other people. It is difficult to imagine a better person.
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