Cork woman with stage 4 cervical cancer urges women to continue screening and get vaccinated
A Cork woman with stage 4 cervical cancer, following two misdiagnosed smear tests, says she still urges women to attend regular screenings and get vaccinated.
Mother of two Leona Macken received an apology from the HSE at the High Court on Tuesday after two of her smear tests — first in 2016 and again in 2020 — were misread.
The 38-year-old hairdresser said she has since been overwhelmed with messages of support from the public, and that the apology meant “the world” to her.
She told the : “I still want women and young girls to get their vaccinations and to have their smears done.
“I paid privately for my first smear at 21 years old. I was always conscious of this”.
She said taking the case to the High Court was about more than her personal experience — it was to highlight that the national cervical screening programme is “not working properly” and must be “properly examined.”
“This happened to me two years after Vicky Phelan, this is not ok, things need to be properly examined, how did this happen again?”.
Following the High Court apology on Wednesday, Ms Macken appeared on and before heading to hospital for chemotherapy.
“They (the HSE) has publicly said they have failed me, there were failures in the system that led to my stage 4 diagnosis” she said.
“I read the apology before it was read in court, and I was really happy with that. But I know it’s not easy to get an apology and it’s rare and that was really so important to me and my husband and our children and our family”.
Ms Macken has been documenting her journey on social media in recent months.
“Having a smear is so important” she said. “I get so many messages from women telling me they had a smear and are now having a biopsy or laser treatment because they have abnormal cells.
“I wish I had that opportunity” she continued. “But I didn’t, and instead I discovered I was at stage 1, then stage 3 and now stage 4.
“My abnormal cells were missed and I missed a chance to treat them. I really wish I had that chance to have stopped it in its tracks that’s why I say to people, get your smear done."
She added: “I will make sure my daughters get their vaccines, I am speaking for them and for the other women who are going to be possibly missed in the system too.
“I trusted the system, but it let me down. Someone needs to investigate why it's going wrong”.
Medical negligence solicitor Cian O’Donnell, who has represented several women affected by screening failures, supported her call.
“Leona Macken is right to encourage people to use the system, because screening does work.
“It didn’t work for her, unfortunately, but Leona is clear in her message to other women and that is to engage with regular screenings and look after your health."
He added: "The minister for health and the HSE and those in charge need to be honest with themselves and not to have this blind insistence that this programme is working.
“Not a single patient in the cervical screening programme has been investigated – Vicky Phelan’s screen was never investigated.
“We need to look at the individual screeners and follow the patterns and audits must be done, but that has not happened and that is not norm in laboratories.”
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