A young west Belfast mother who died from ovarian cancer has been praised for her gift of bringing people together and courage in facing her illness.
Leancha Smith (31) died last Monday in hospice surrounded by her family and is survived by her husband Christopher (35) and daughter Meabh (7), mother Karen and younger siblings Cliódhna, Darragh, Lucy and Daniel.
There was a huge outpouring of support for the family before a requiem mass at St John’s Church on the Falls Road on Friday, followed by burial in Milltown Cemetery.
The oldest of five siblings, the former St Dominic’s pupil had worked for Youth Link NI, an inter-church organisation focusing on bringing young people from different backgrounds together.
With a strong Christian faith, it was through her youth ministry work at Clonard Monastery that she met her husband Christopher.
After welcoming their daughter Meabh in 2016, they married two years later and made their home in the St James' area of west Belfast.
First diagnosed with cancer two-and-a-half years ago, she had undergone chemotherapy but her condition unfortunately deteriorated in January.
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Admitted to hospital on her birthday, July 7, her family had initially been called to her bedside three weeks later before she was transferred to hospice care.
Speaking to the Irish News, her husband Christopher spoke of his wife’s bravery throughout her treatment, her dedication as a mother and ability to unite people through her work and faith.
“People always said that when you talked to Leancha, you felt like you meant something important to her,” he said of her peacebuilding work with Youth Link.
“She was the type of person that wanted to build relationships with people, especially those who traditionally would not have got very well together in this place in Northern Ireland."
After starting out as friends, they had travelled through the youth ministry in Europe as well as helping sick and elderly people in Lourdes.
“We grew really close friends and then started dating 11 years ago. I had lived in Dublin so we had a bit of a long-distance relationship at that time, but the friendship was strong and our love for each other was quite evident as we had grown so close,” he said.
“We made the long-distance relationship work and had our daughter Meabh in 2016 and I moved back up to Belfast shortly after to begin our family life.”
He said parenthood came naturally to them, having often looked after Leancha's young twin siblings Daniel and Lucy, now aged 10.
“A lot of people would have thought we were their parents and she very much accepted that," he said.
“Daniel and Lucy would tell you that me and Leancha were like her second mum and dad. We looked after them so much and cherished and loved them.
“So when Meabh came along we felt prepared for parenthood. She really loved being a mum to Meabh and Meabh loved her mum as well.”
Passing on her faith to Meabh was especially important, and the family cherish a photo of them lighting a candle together in St John’s Church.
On facing the life-changing diagnosis in 2021, he said: “We’re quite matter of fact people, so we asked the doctors to give us all the information and we said ‘ok, we’ll accept this and see what we can do with it.’”
With a slow-growing cancer at first, she had required a hysterectomy which took away the chance to have more children.
“That was tough, because we wanted to continue to build our family,” said Christopher.
“But we were very thankful that we had Meabh, because she was a blessing from God and she brings joy into everyone’s lives.
“Not just mine and Leancha’s, but our parents and brothers, sisters and grandparents. Everyone just sees Meabh as this little girl full of joy.
“I think that’s really a testament to how Leancha lived her life, full of joy, and she was able to pass on those lovely traits to Meabh.”
When Leancha suffered hair loss after starting chemotherapy in October, Christopher remembers: “She shaved her head and she just rocked it.
“She announced it to the world over social media while we were out visiting a Halloween pumpkin patch.
“She said, ‘I don’t know what’s braver, me wearing white shoes to the pumpkin patch or shaving my head?’
“She always took that light-hearted approach of ‘this is a bad situation, but how can we see the light-hearted and funny side of it?’”
On difficult days, he said a prayer from the Clonard Novena had become his wife’s mantra, ‘We share with you and your son, the joy of having courageously faced up to all of the challenges of life.’
From Easter time, the family knew that Leancha’s life was limited, but they had been determined to enjoy as much time together as possible.
Thanking the “phenomenal” hospice staff, he said they allowed his wife to keep her dignity while giving the family space to process what was about to happen.
In typical style, he said Leancha wanted to know all about those helping her.
“Everytime someone came in to care for her, she was asking about them and caring about the people who were caring for her.
“That definitely had a big impact on the staff because she was a beautiful soul and I think they all recognised that.”
A JustGiving page from the family has now raised over £5,000 for the Northern Ireland Hospice.
Planning every aspect of her funeral, Christopher said she had also thought about how it would affect the young children immediately afterwards.
This involved setting up a cake stall run by her daughter and two youngest siblings to raise money for the hospice, reaching an impressive total of £1,672.
“She was thinking about how the kids would feel after the funeral and burial, so she wanted to give them a wee job to focus their minds as well as to give adults the opportunity to come up and tell them how great they were because they were doing something so positive.”
“That summed Leancha up greatly, she was selfless in every way.”
“I think she had prepared us for her passing. So I will be OK and Meabh will be OK because of her preparation she put in place beforehand and I just think that’s lovely.”
