It’s bucketing down outside, but inside at Lough Rynn Castle, the fires are roaring. We’ve come to visit Leitrim-based milliner and influencer Jennifer Wrynne who we find standing in the most impressive high-ceilinged bay window, her arms outstretched, beaming. “This is like a dream come true for me”, she tells us, pulling us in for hug.
The mood is good for a couple of reasons, primarily because two days ago this gorgeous 36-year-old mum of four-under five, completed – bar some antibody therapy injections – her breast cancer treatment. “I can’t believe it’s nearly all behind me now”, she tells us smiling, her eyes bright.
Diagnosed just nine months ago, after her youngest child’s christening and while still in the newborn bubble, the news came, of course, as a profound shock. She found the lump by accident in the shower rather than through routine checks, saying it “came out to meet me.”
She’s sharing her story now to highlight that cancer affects all ages and to encourage younger women to check their breasts. She shows us around the hotel, where she got married in 2024, and which is a 10-minute drive from her home in Mohill. We fall in love and promise to return before taking some lovely photos and then sit to chat. She tells us her story, how her parents and husband kept her spirits up, how gratitude for early detection gave her perspective, and how this milliner and designer who captures the magic of occasionwear like no other, says sewing was – and always has been – her therapy.
Jennifer, it’s a special week for you, tell us why.
I’ve just finished my radiotherapy sessions! When I started this cancer journey, surgery was first on the list, then chemotherapy andm finally radiotherapy! I had 20 days of it, over four weeks Monday to Friday. The actual radiotherapy was fine in the sense that it’s three minutes on a bed and I didn’t have any side effects really, but for me it was the driving up and down to Dublin every day, which was a lot. But yes it’s all behind me now which is amazing!
That is amazing. You’ve spoken so openly about your diagnosis – what gave you the strength to share such a personal journey?
I set up an Instagram and Facebook page roughly 15 years ago, originally to promote my hats, but I felt there was no way I was going to go through all of this and not share a little bit. Initially when I did announce the news I got such love and support, but I had no intention of sharing every detail, however as I went along, I realised how much it helped me. It carried me literally through the whole way. Some people choose to do these things privately and I totally get that and respect that too, but for me the easiest way of dealing with it
was by talking about it. And I suppose I also felt I could use my platform to share the message for people to check their breasts, young people especially, because when you’re 36 you just don’t expect it at all.
And it’s only been nine months since all this happened, you must still be in shock.
It really was such a shock. We had our baby Amelia Rose’s christening on our one-year wedding anniversary, and it was actually the following day that I went to Galway to get the lump examined, and about a week after that I was actually diagnosed, it was just mad.
Did your perspective on life change in an instant, does that actually happen?
Yeah, yeah it does. I suppose for me the main thing that changed is not sweating the small stuff. I also stopped the rushing around, the panicking, maybe to get back to work after maternity leave, after having a baby. I was like, whoa, slow down, this could be over tomorrow, you know, for any of us, anything could happen. But yeah, it does make you slow down and just appreciate the little things.
During treatment did you surprise yourself with your own resilience?
For me, I kept comparing my diagnosis to people that were worse off than me. And while I did have to go through all the chemo, radio, all that stuff, mine was caught early which was just like literally the difference of night and day in the sense that I had to get a lumpectomy done as opposed to a mastectomy. Also I was so lucky to catch it, my lump was quite close to my skin, I feel like my lump came out to meet me! Like I didn’t go looking for it, I wasn’t checking my breasts, it was just purely by accident in the shower that I came across it. So I think my gratitude for everything outweighed all the negative feelings.
Are you usually a glass half full person? Because all day today you have been smiling!
I probably am! My parents are very positive people. They’re very like, get on with it, get on with living. My dad had a very bad accident 43 years ago and had to learn how to walk, talk, how to read and write again. He also lost the power in the right hand side of his body, but he never complains. He got up and he got on with it. Our house was one of those houses where you were told that if you were cold to put on a jumper, if you’re hungry, eat, if you’re tired, go to bed! There’s no tolerance for whinging, basically! Obviously, my parents were sympathetic with me, but we just got on with it. Also, I had four children peering at me in the bed, so every morning I had to just get up and get going!
And even on bad days were you still able to get up and get on with it?
I was because I had such massive support from my husband and my mum and my mother-in-law. I always just had it in my head to just get up and get out of bed every day, even if I was pulling and dragging myself around the place. The hardest part was the chemotherapy, but I knew the routine of it, in that I’d have one bad week after treatment and then two good weeks.
How was your husband, Colm [Conway], when he heard the news?
My husband is never short for words, he’s the funny guy, always making jokes, making light of every situation no matter how serious it is, but when I told him he just went completely silent on the phone, it was the one time I saw him in shock. But once the news settled and we had the information he was very like my parents, he was very matter of fact as well, and if I derailed into panic he’d give me the facts of the case – he’s a solicitor!
Having strong people must definitely help. You’ve also been put into a medical menopause, how are you finding that?
Yes, it’s one injection a month that basically shuts down my ovaries to protect them, so yeah that’s been fun! But mentally I suppose I go back to the fact that I’m so grateful that I have my children and that’s what keeps me going – though I am not enjoying the hot flushes! But I am really lucky because there’s so many people in their 30s that don’t have children and they’re freezing their eggs, so really I am blessed with my four babies: Alexander who is five, the twins Amber and Isabella who are three, and Amelia Rose who is just one.
Your world no doubt. Let’s talk about Daffodil Day (March 20th) – your involvement as Irish Cancer Society ambassador must feel very important to you?
I think it’s predicted that one in two of us will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in our lifetime. And cancer doesn’t discriminate by age, as I well know! Throughout my treatment and recovery, The Irish Cancer Society has provided trusted information, reassurance, and a sense of hope at times when I needed it most. It’s been a lifeline.
And support for them is crucial because they only get five percent funding from the government so fundraising really matters.
If we didn’t have Daffodil Day and people didn’t raise awareness and literally donate money, the services just wouldn’t exist, and you don’t know how important or, valid these services are until you’re in the midst of it all.
You are in the midst of it all now, but do you think the real shock of this whole experience will come later?
I think I’m a bit of a delayed reactor! Actually sometimes I pause for a second and I’m like, did I actually have cancer, did I actually go through chemotherapy, it hasn’t actually fully registered in my brain. I actually think my mum says it about herself too, that she’s a delayed reactor aswell. I think in about two years time I’ll probably collapse on the floor, but now I think I’m still in flight-or-fight mode.
And you’re so busy at home with four children under five. Plus you’ve been working too…
I work for my mum in our curtain business, in more the admin side. So a lot of the work that I do is usually from the home office in my parents’ house. Or from my own house. So when your mammy’s the boss, you can kind of pick the hours a little bit too! Like on my bad weeks, the brain fog was so bad I couldn’t focus or concentrate on anything for a few days after every infusion. And then I’d be fine. So work has been a little sporadic. But the influencer work and the work I do online, I’ve been able to continue that throughout. Thank God.
Working probably provided a distraction, did it?
Yeah. It’s probably been good to have that focus. And also I work with lovely brands. A lot of them I’ve worked with for years. A lot of people are not able to work, I’m not a hairdresser standing up all day, or a teacher listening to 30 children, or a nurse doing a 12 hour night shift you know, it’s different for everybody, but for my type of work I was able to manage it so yeah it made me feel normal and structured. I was grateful to be able to work.
We had one of your beautiful hats today in one of the shots, are you still creating pieces at the moment?
Not at the moment, I do my millinery just out of love and passion. I have a little tiny sewing room at home, you wouldn’t swing a cat in it, but that’s where I go to escape – almost. I’m not taking orders at the minute, but I will definitely get back to it someday.
You learnt all your sewing skills from your mum, didn’t you?
Yeah, mum originally started in dressmaking just for family and friends, and then customers. Now she has a curtain business and works mainly for interior designers, so I’ve been sewing all my life. My creative side comes definitely from her and when I started making hats she took a huge interest in them. I love it I really do, sewing for me is therapy.
Do you have lovely curtains in your own home?!
It’s a bit like the cobblers shoes! We do have nice ones, but nothing as glamorous as the ones we make for our customers!
Finally Jennifer, what are you dreaming about now for you, your family, and your work?
Right now, I’m really trying to prioritise my health. I thought I was healthy beforehand, and I thought I exercised beforehand. I think I prioritised a low calorie diet over a nourishing diet so that’s all changed now. I’m trying to eat better foods, and exercise, trying to take time out to relax, to de-stress, to do lovely shoots like this, and to love and mind my gorgeous precious little family.
