Get to know
Katherine Dolphin Griffin
At 10:10, On February 4th, 2017, World Cancer Day, Katherine Dolphin Griffin’s life fell apart. Her beloved father, Joe, lost his 5th battle with cancer. Life as she knew it was changed forever, and the grief was crippling.
Katherine, a cancer survivor herself, wanted to help make more survivors. So she decided to fundraise in a way that gives all of her, in an honest, raw, and passionate way, putting as much of herself into it as possible. As a result, she has written and self-published her first book, which shares her coping strategies that have resulted in her healing and recovery from trauma and finding joy.
This book’s proceeds will go directly to The Irish Cancer Society and Marymount Hospital and Hospice. She hopes that her feel-good story of finding ways to cope with life’s challenges will help others too. Drawing on all she has learned, first to survive and then, in time, to thrive, Hope to Cope is a journey of love and perseverance to find strength through the most challenging times.
It is a book about acknowledging deep pain and traumatic life events alongside the potential for a new perspective. It is not a story of seeing good despite circumstances. It is a story of living through the circumstances, accepting that sometimes coping is enough and one of great hope. Through her own life stories, Katherine shows that in accepting what we cannot change, we can look to the things we can change and focus there.
Having experienced her first trauma at 16 years old when her mother unexpectedly left home, she promptly learned strategies to run a male-dominated home consisting of her dad and four young brothers.
Katherine was always a daddy’s girl and had a solid connection with dad Joe, learning a lot from him. She feels that this is his story too. She was his next of kin and helped him throughout his nine-year cancer journey. In the midst of this, she retrained as a teacher, which included taking on the Leaving certificate Irish Course, followed by the Hibernia teacher training course.
She has had it tough since her cancer treatment, with each successive year bringing a new health issue. She had had her gallbladder removed – and her Fallopian tubes. She has been diagnosed with Uterine conditions, including endometriosis and fibroids, and coeliac disease. Her bowel stopped working in 2017, and she’s on the drug Resolor. Diagnosed with hearing loss, she wears hearing aids. She has had several kidney stones and Chronic T.M.J., a condition affecting the jaw joints for which she has Botox injections in the head and scalp.
Through various struggles in her life, she could not find what she was looking for in a book or find someone who has suffered in a similar way who could help or advise her. She was left to teach herself various coping strategies through the invention or learning through experience. Katherine is very conscious that this might be the case for many people. She believes that it’s important to share one’s learnings to help someone else who may be on a similar journey or who is a little lost right now. Once you have suffered, you don’t want others to suffer too.
Her determination to raise cancer awareness saw her star in the V.H.I. Healthcare testimonial advert from 2017 to 2021.
Today her grief is “beside” her rather than “on top” of her. She has not had a new diagnosis in over 12 months and feels it is time to pay it forward to help others. She credits her survival to her attitude of gratitude, love, and hope.
Hope to Cope will Launch on February 4th, 2022, World Cancer Day, her dad’s 5th Anniversary. In a bid to keep costs down so that as much money as possible can go to these fantastic charities, she has studied a publishing course to self-publish. She has written, marketed, fundraised, and promoted this book herself.
The book includes 16 essays, each of which begins with a motivational quote. Each tells a story of a challenge or struggle that she experienced in her life. Next, she describes what happened and the tools used to overcome each challenge. Finally, she talks about what she has learned about herself and others. She has struggled at times, which many people can identify with following the past months of living with Covid.
Dealing with life’s challenges doesn’t have to be the end of the world as long as you have hope in your heart. This upbeat book will show you that there is always hope. Hope to cope.
Please support Katherine in whatever way you can to help raise awareness of this remarkable achievement.
You can also support her journey on Instagram @my.hope.to.cope.story.
Hope to Cope 