Any illness is stressful, and if you are unlucky enough to develop something rare and life-threatening while abroad, differences in language, health care systems and treatment can only multiply the fear and anxiety you’d normally feel.
That was the case for Niall Breathnach, who, in 2015, developed a urinary tract infection that wouldn’t clear up and, by the end of the year, had also begun experiencing lower back pain.
“Being 35, I put it down to getting older,” says Breathnach, who adds that he got increasingly worried as the pain continued and spread to his groin in the years that followed.