Cancer campaigner Stephen Teap 'deeply honoured' to be appointed as head of Cork charity

Stephen Teap lost his wife Irene to cervical cancer in 2017. Picture: David Creedon

A campaigner who lost his wife following a cervical cancer misdiagnosis has been appointed as the new chief executive of Cork ARC Cancer Support House.

Irene Teap was just 35 years' old when she lost her life in a case that “could have been avoided” in 2017.

In 2022, her family settled a High Court action against the Health Service Executive (HSE) and two laboratories over her death as part of the cervical cancer scandal.

Since then, her husband and father of her two boys, Oscar aged 11 and Noah aged nine, has campaigned for change in the health service.

On Tuesday, Mr Teap announced he would take up the role of chief executive at Arc on August 27.

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr Teap said he was “deeply honoured” to have been accepted for the role, which was advertised publicly.

“It began with my wife’s death, and I have worked very hard to be a patient advocate since,” he said.

“My wife was misdiagnosed, and it all could have been avoided.

Stephen Teap with his sons Noah and Oscar.

“We were married six years and have two young boys. As someone who has seen first-hand the benefits people get from places like Arc, I can honestly say this is a very important place offering an important service.

“I met the staff on Tuesday and the volunteers there are incredible. There are two locations for Arc, one outside Cork City and the other in West Cork in Bantry.

“They provide a wonderful service from therapy to counselling. It opened in 2003 and they are a donation-based charity.

“We can’t offer support without fundraising, and they are raising money for vital services. They receive a very small amount from the HSE, and Arc is planning year-by-year, rather than long-term, so we want to make things a lot more regular.

“That’s the frustrating side of things, when you need to raise funds for people who are fighting for their lives or are in recovery and we are there for the families too."

Mr Teap said he wanted to make a “leap of faith” from the corporate sector to full-time charity work because he believes working with the HSE will help to “help make change”.