Vicky Phelan (guest editor): Five women, from their 20s to 50s, on how a cervical smear test saved their lives

Michelle O'Loughlin, Killaloe, Clare. Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22.

Ranging in age from their 20s to 50s, these women survived cancer because of cervical screening, writes Arlene Harris.

Screening for cervical cancer has been in the headlines for months for all the wrong reasons.