Being handed a diagnosis of lethal cancer together with the promise that it will radically shorten your life rarely provokes — in the person hearing the deadly prognosis — the desire to be funny.

Update 4.32pm: Emma Mhic Mhathúna has today urged those affected by the CervicalCheck scandal to continue the fight.

Magnificently heroic despite a savage prognosis, Emma Mhic Mhathúna, victim of mis-read smear tests, has revealed that her cancer has spread to her brain.

“Check, check and recheck.” That was the message from Emma Mhic Mhathúna for those dealing with the cervical smear tests of Irish women.

Emma Mhic Mhathúna came to the Four Courts a victor not a victim.

Kerry mother Emma Mhic Mhathúna and her five children who sued over CervicalCheck smears have settled their legal action for €7.5m.

What the Government really fears is the voice of a dying woman blaming them for her plight, writes Victoria White

Kerry mother Emma Mhic Mhathúna and her five children are to seek exemplary and aggravated damages when their case over alleged delays relating to CervicalCheck smears goes ahead in the High Court in a few weeks time.

Emma Mhic Mhathúna and her five children have launched a High Court action over alleged delays relating to CervicalCheck smears.

Thirty five of the country’s top health officials need to be removed from their posts while an inquiry takes place into the smear tests scandal, terminally ill mother Vicky Phelan has said.

Up to 400 people, most of them women, turned out in the Square in Tralee yesterday evening in a show of support for Emma Mhic Mhathúna, the 37-year-old mother of five whose smear test failed to detect cancer warning signs and who now has terminal cancer.

The Taoiseach and the Health Minister have defended the Department of Health’s chief medical officer, despite the fact that he kept details of the cervical smear scandal from them for two years.

Tony O’Brien, the embattled director general of the Health Service Executive last night bowed to mounting political pressure over the smear test scandal and resigned.