For more than a decade, Paul Reidy has worked as a warehouse technician at Johnson & Johnson’s manufacturing facility in Cork, Ireland—operating forklifts and electric pallet trucks and managing the supplies that support scientists and manufacturing technicians at the facility to make lifesaving cancer treatments. After a shocking diagnosis of multiple myeloma three years ago, Paul, now 40, learned he would soon rely on one of those very therapies.
Paul’s experience reflects how advances in cancer treatment are changing what it means to live with multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer once considered fatal.
A sharp pain in his chest
The first symptom hit him unexpectedly at the gym. In June 2023, Paul was doing his regular workout when he was struck by a shooting pain in the upper left side of his chest.
“The pain was so bad, it felt like a heart attack,” says Paul. When he rested, the pain diminished, so he chalked it up to muscle strain and didn’t think much of it.
He had always been healthy and active, regularly biking, running and taking long hikes with his golden retriever, Ghost. His job helped keep him in peak physical condition, as did the roofing, plumbing and other home-improvement projects he learned from his father. But over the next few months, the pain intensified.
“Being a guy, I was too stubborn to see a doctor,” he recalls. Three days before Christmas that year, Paul decided to have it checked. His physician agreed that it sounded like a muscle tear, yet ordered a chest X-ray just to be sure.
“You have multiple myeloma”
As soon as Paul saw his doctor’s face, he knew the results were not good. The X-ray showed a mass in his rib area that appeared to be potentially malignant, but more tests would need to be done to confirm.
“It was a kick in the teeth—something you never expect to hear,” says Paul. “I rang my partner, Donna, to tell her and, like me, she was in complete shock and disbelief.”
Hearing the results of the chest X-ray, Paul assumed he had lung cancer. But after weeks of imaging scans, lab tests and a biopsy, he learned the tumor was in his rib—and caused by multiple myeloma.
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects plasma cells—special white blood cells that help fight infections. The disease progresses as the plasma cells, also called myeloma cells, build up in bone marrow, the spongy tissue deep inside the bones where new blood cells are made.
People with multiple myeloma often develop tumors in bones, as Paul did. He was initially diagnosed with solitary plasmacytoma, a precursor to the disease. But further tests confirmed it had progressed to multiple myeloma, specifically a subtype called lambda light chain myeloma.
“Thankfully it was at an early enough stage to not have affected my kidneys, which is quite often a serious complication for myeloma patients,” he says.
Though multiple myeloma is a rare disease that most commonly affects people over 65, Paul fit some of the known risk patterns. Men are more likely to develop the disease, and diagnoses among younger adults are increasing. Now, 10% of all people diagnosed with multiple myeloma are under age 50.
Paul and his family couldn’t believe he was one of them.
“Telling Donna and my parents was hard,” he says. “It was emotional, and they were crying. They’re there for you, but you’re crying yourself. Thankfully, I got over that and told myself, ‘It’s time to get the mindset ready.’”
Months of lifesaving treatments begin
Multiple myeloma, which doesn’t have a cure, is a complex type of cancer to treat.
Because it starts in the bone marrow, many different types of cells are affected. And unlike other cancer cells, myeloma cells don’t clone exact replicas of themselves. They make multiple versions, which require different treatments to attempt to target and eradicate them all.
Paul was ready for the fight. In February 2024, his mother accompanied him to his first appointment with an oncologist. “We told the oncologist, ‘Don’t sugarcoat this. Where do we go from here and what do we do?’” he recalls.
He was encouraged by the doctor’s optimism. “She said, ‘Ten years ago, this could have been a death sentence. Now, you can live a long life with what’s considered a manageable condition.’”
His doctor described each step of the almost year-long process.
For 16 weeks, Paul would need to take a combination of four therapies capable of killing the myeloma cells in his body. Then, some of his stem cells—specialized cells that are able to develop into different types of cells—would be collected from his bloodstream, frozen and stored.
After two weeks of intense chemotherapy, he would have a stem cell transplant, meaning his own stem cells would be given back to him through a procedure much like a blood transfusion.
If all went well, his body would readily accept the new healthy cell lines, and they would generate plenty of new healthy cells to fight the cancer.
As the oncologist explained the treatment plan, Paul was surprised to hear her mention a cancer therapy he recognized from his warehouse job at Johnson & Johnson.
“I said, “We make this at work!’” he recalls. “It was ironic that I work for the company that makes it, and I’m about to start taking the drug to save my life.”
Fighting cancer while grieving a family tragedy
For the next four months, Paul went into the hospital to receive an injection of the Johnson & Johnson therapy whose ingredients he handled in the warehouse.
Known as a monoclonal antibody, the treatment attaches itself to a specific protein found only on the surface of myeloma cells and kills them. It also helps the immune system more easily identify these cells, inducing lysis and clearing the myeloma cells from the body.
During that first phase of treatment, “I made a choice not to change anything I usually do,” says Paul. He continued working, staying active and spending time with loved ones.
He also shared his diagnosis with his coworkers. “There was a stunned silence and a few lads were shedding tears,” he says. “I got some hugs, handshakes and lots of words of comfort and support.”
Donna, his parents and his friends also rallied around him, which helped his mindset. “There were obviously days when I prayed and asked Donna, ‘Oh God, you know, why me?’ But you just take the hand you’re dealt and try and play it out best.”
Paul had regular blood tests that showed the therapies were working and that the number of myeloma cells in his body was dropping. By summer 2024, he was ready for the next treatment stage, in which stem cells would be harvested from his blood.
Then came shattering news. The night before the first hospital procedure, which required a three-day hospital stay, Paul’s father suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke. Paul couldn’t postpone the procedure and had no choice but to say his goodbyes to his father by phone. By the time he could leave the hospital and rush home, his father had passed away.
Paul was devastated. “He was a good man, a really honest, good man and worked hard for his family,” he says. “The person I am today is because of him.”
The hardest step: chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant
While grieving the loss of his father, Paul went through two grueling weeks of intense, high-dose chemotherapy to prepare his body for the stem cell transplant. His hair fell out and he lost weight. “It’s the only time someone said I looked sick,” he says.
That fall, nine months after his diagnosis, Paul received his stem cell transplant. To give his immune system a chance to rebuild, he was kept in isolation at the hospital.
“I’m an outdoor person, so being stuck in a hospital bed for 15 days—I was counting the days to go home,” he says.
At first, the transplant wiped out his usual high energy level. But during his first week home, he walked a 5K. Within a month, he cautiously returned to the gym. By Christmas, he was cooking dinner for his family—their first holiday without his father.
Living and thriving with multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma doesn’t go into remission the way other cancers do. Patients like Paul who have successfully completed and responded well to treatment may achieve what is known as minimal residual disease (MRD), meaning only a very small number of cancer cells remain, often below the levels of detection of standard tests.
Paul achieved MRD status, and he continues to be closely monitored by his doctor with monthly blood tests to make sure the number of myeloma cells in his body aren’t increasing. He takes a medication and also a maintenance therapy to support his immune system and help keep the cancer at bay.
Despite occasional fatigue, Paul says, “the majority of the time, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with me. I feel like I can conquer anything.”
He remains involved with Multiple Myeloma Ireland (MMI), a nonprofit organization he connected with during his cancer treatment. Johnson & Johnson has a longstanding partnership with MMI; every year, company employees walk, run, cycle and swim as part of a month-long fundraiser. In September 2024, Paul helped raise 8,500 euros (almost $10,000 dollars).
To celebrate his MRD status, Paul’s coworkers took him to a Manchester United football match in England. At work, he admits, his job feels different now. He pays extra attention to a wall that lists the different therapies Johnson & Johnson makes in the Cork facility.
“I pass it going into the warehouse every day,” he says. “And I look at the therapy I received and think, ‘the future is very bright for someone like me living with multiple myeloma.”
