Fragile nun who set a standard of care that badly needs to be restored

IN an atmosphere of warranted condemnation of poor clinical standards at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda it is inevitable that the inspiration, toil and prayers of the foundress of the Medical Missionaries of Mary, Mother Mary Martin, who established the 300-bed state-of-the-art hospital in Drogheda, are lost sight of and collective indebtedness forgotten.

The ongoing controversy about how best at this late stage for potential cancer of the cervix victims to try to stem the increasing incidence of the disease provides an opportunity to reveal one of the phenomenally perceptive endeavours of that fragile old woman to improve the care of patients, especially women, in Ireland and the Third World. A case in point never accorded the gratitude it deserves was her initiative 45 years ago to introduce cervical screening for cancer to Ireland.

Aided by Prof John Kennedy of Galway and the Irish Cancer Society, she set up a screening service at the Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, while Prof Kennedy put a similar programme in place in Galway which, in a very few years, saw a dramatic reduction in the incidence of inoperable cervical cancer in the west.