Mother who held emergency department sit-in has cancer

A mother who hit the headlines when she stormed into a hospital emergency department (ED) and refused to leave before being properly diagnosed has just received the devastating news that she has cancer.

Caroline Sherwin, from Donacarney, Co Meath, is now even more adamant that she acted correctly three weeks ago, when she waited for 13 hours in the ED of the Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda. Despite being put under pressure by staff to leave, she refused to go until she was seen by a surgeon.

A surgeon eventually saw her at about 10.30pm after he had finished surgery and ordered her to be operated on the next day to excise a mass on her lymph node.