‘Two years later we still haven’t got closure’

Mary Pakenham is one of the 35 women left out of a redress scheme for former patients damaged by disgraced obstetrician Michael Neary.

Fifteen years ago, shortly before her 41st birthday, the former surgeon removed Ms Pakenham’s womb and ovaries for no reason.

She keeps asking herself why. “I thought he had saved my life, but it says on my medical chart that I had two healthy ovaries,” said Ms Pakenham, a mother of four from Oldcastle, Co Meath, who was excluded from the scheme on grounds of age.