Vicky Phelan enjoys ‘wonderful day’ with friends while deciding future cancer treatment

Last month, the campaigner revealed she was reconsidering whether to continue with her cancer treatment in Maryland

Vicky Phelan with Fiona McKiernan and her husband, Nick.

Campaigner Vicky Phelan has shared some insight into her travels in Maryland as she spends time with friends and enjoys some downtime before making a decision on her healthcare plan.

Over the weekend, Ms Phelan described her visit to Baltimore and thanked the staff at a boutique hotel in Mount Vernon for inviting her to stay and “looking after me so well” while there. She also described a visit she paid to Hillwood Museum with her friend Maureen Cooney, adding she will “definitely go back, maybe to enjoy one of the many jazz music evenings in the gardens”.

Yesterday, she shared pictures from a road trip she enjoyed with Fiona McKiernan and her husband, Nick. "Another wonderful day with friends and more lovely memories in the bank," she wrote, adding: “I had THE nicest brunch I've had since I landed here in the States over eight months ago.”

Last month, the CervicalCheck campaigner revealed she was reconsidering whether to continue with her cancer treatment in Maryland. Ms Phelan is undergoing a year-long treatment in the US and took a month-long break this summer to return to Ireland and spend some time with her family.

Since her return to the US, she says she has been researching other options for treatment as she wishes to spend more time with her children and is unsure if a new clinical trial is worth the time apart from her loved ones.

“Is it worth spending another six months away from my children, who I am missing terribly this time round, for what... three or four months stability?” she said on social media at the time.

She had been receiving drug M784 but experienced harsh side effects, including developing Bell's palsy which paralysed the left side of her face. The campaigner says her doctor suggested she undergoes the new treatment for a month and then after a scan decide if she should continue. In a later update, she shared the news that scan results had proven more positive than expected.

"I had no new tumours and only one small increase in one of my existing tumours,” she said. Her cancer is slow-growing and she doesn’t have any new tumours, giving her time to decide what to do next.