Vicky Phelan: Tragic accident from youth shaped who I am today
Cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has described how being in a car accident when she was a teenager - in which her then-boyfriend and two others were killed - helped give her the strength she needed to stand up for those affected by the CervicalCheck scandal.
She was in the accident when she was 19 and studying in France and told Ruairí McKiernan on the podcast that the experience helped her realise that she was "not invincible".
"You see before all of this I’ve had so many things before that happened, like the accident that helped me realise that I’m not invincible and life is not fair," she said recalling the accident that left her facing a difficult period of rehabilitation in hospital after breaking 70% of the bones on the left-hand side of her body.
"These things, they either make you or break you. I had to grow up very fast. It shapes you, something like that. You see the fragility of life.”
The Kilkenny-born campaigner also spoke about her experience recovering in an Irish hospital and how the surgeon made her feel “like a piece of meat” and how she stood up to him.
“You never asked me permission. I’m not giving you permission to do this any longer," she recalled.
“He wrote in my report that I had an attitude problem. I lost three of my friends, including my boyfriend, and I had all these injuries and all he could say was that I had an attitude problem.
“That was my first foray into standing up for myself against an authority figure,” she added.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
