In this fourth part of Vicky’s personal story, she tells how she researched her clinical trial options, her resistance to palliative chemotherapy, her fight to access Pembrolizumab back in early 2018 and how she struggled through the week of her trial despite terrible pain and rapidly growing tumours. She also describes the process of receiving Pembrolizumab, the immunotherapy drug that extended a quality of life for her over the past three years. 

In Episode 7, Vicky describes how it felt to learn that her cancer was back in late 2017, how she reacted to the news that she had just 12 to 18 months left to live and how she set about researching treatment options as opposed to the palliative care she was being offered in University Hospital Limerick.

In this episode, Vicky explains the process and effects of brachytherapy, an internal radiation treatment that tries to eliminate the spread of cervical cancer but results in life changing side effects. Vicky also discusses her menopause, brought on suddenly by her treatments, how she keeps focussed on staying alive for her family and brings us up to the discovery in late 2017 that her cancer was back and was incurable.

Vicky talks about her commitment to cervical screening, being diagnosed with cervical cancer in 2014 and explains what it was like going through radiotherapy and chemotherapy in the hope that her experience will be of some assistance to others embarking on a similar treatment.

Cian sets out the detail of why the CervicalCheck Tribunal falls so far short of what was promised by Government and why so few can apply to it.

In Part 1 of this discussion, Vicky and Cian reacted to the revelation that the CervicalCheck Tribunal has so far cost over €2.5m yet has only attracted 3 applications. In this episode, Cian looks in detail at why this Tribunal is of so little use to the women and families it was supposed to serve the interests of while Vicky tells how Stephen Donnelly as minister for health ignored her concerns and those of her fellow 221+ representatives Lorraine Walsh and Stephen Teap while the Tribunal was being set up.

Vicky and Cian look at the CervicalCheck Tribunal and how Stephen Donnelly seems happy to spend millions of tax euros on a Tribunal that is ‘too little and too late’ for most of the women affected by the negligence in CervicalCheck.

Cian O’Carroll Solicitors have represented Vicky Phelan throughout the landmark case she took to uncover the failures in the CervicalCheck screening programme that caused her to develop incurable cervical cancer. Through fighting her case, Vicky uncovered a shocking healthcare scandal that has affected so many women and families across Ireland. Vicky went on to fight one campaign after another for women’s healthcare in Ireland while at the same time fighting for her own life; fighting for more time. This is a series of conversations were Vicky and Cian discuss what went wrong in CervicalCheck, how those fatal and life changing mistakes happened and look at what Vicky has achieved since she became an advocate for change.

In this episode, Vicky and Cian talk about how this series came about, who it is primarily intended for and outline some of the topics to be discussed over the coming weeks. 

They also discuss Vicky's case and reveal the unusual and quite unexpected letter that Vicky received after her case from Tony O'Brien, then Director General of the HSE.

Note: This episode was recorded using Zoom and so the audio quality drops at times. All future episodes were recorded differently to ensure higher audio quality. 

Cian O’Carroll Solicitors have represented Vicky Phelan throughout the landmark case she took to uncover the failures in the CervicalCheck screening programme that caused her to develop incurable cervical cancer.

Through fighting her case, Vicky uncovered a shocking healthcare scandal that has affected so many women and families across Ireland.

Vicky went on to fight one campaign after another for women’s healthcare in Ireland while at the same time fighting for her own life; fighting for more time.

This is a series of conversations were Vicky and Cian discuss what went wrong in CervicalCheck, how those fatal and life changing mistakes happened and look at what Vicky has achieved since she became an advocate for change.

Vicky and Cian hope you enjoy and find this series informative. 

Cian O'Carroll talks with Vicky Phelan about their experience on exposing the cervical check scandal in Ireland.