Sheila Reilly: Thanks to Vicky Phelan, a veil has been lifted on Irish women’s healthcare

Vicky Phelan. Picture: RTÉ

From the moment she stood on the steps of the High Court in April 2018 to deliver a damning assessment of her treatment at the hands of the Cervical Check programme and the HSE, Vicky Phelan has shaken the foundations of women’s healthcare in Ireland.

In refusing to be silenced by a confidentiality clause in her case against a US lab and the HSE, Vicky Phelan blew the lid on a controversy that could have remained under wraps for years.

Her decision to go public, which came at great sacrifice to her privacy at a time when she would have been entitled to focus on herself, shone a light on the deficiencies of the CervicalCheck programme and encouraged more women to come forward and seek justice. For some it was, tragically, too late.

But many more women will have been saved as a result of Vicky Phelan’s actions which ultimately led to an investigation of CervicalCheck. The resulting Scally Report made 50 recommendations for reform of CervicalCheck.

In the intervening years, Vicky Phelan has earned her place in the nation’s heart, speaking candidly about the harsh realities of cancer treatment and in doing so sweeping away the stigma that surrounded talking about life with the disease. 

We watched in awe as she campaigned for the drug Pembro to be made available for all women who have cervical cancer in Ireland. We admired her sheer bravery when she went to America last year to go on clinical trials. It didn’t work out and she is back in Ireland undergoing palliative treatment. 

Still determined to challenge and question, she has called for terminally ill people to be allowed to decide how to die.

“There are no winners here today,” Vicky Phelan said on that fateful April day outside the High Court and she was not wrong. 

She has paid a heavy price for the failures of others but thanks to her selfless actions, a veil has been lifted on women’s healthcare in this country and the repercussions of this extend far beyond CervicalCheck.

Vicky Phelan has changed Ireland. She has saved lives, rocked the health service, challenged politicians and never shied from talking about tough issues. 

But most of all, she has inspired a new generation of women to ask that extra question, to seek that second opinion, to trust their bodies and always, always follow their gut instinct when it comes to their own health.