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.

The ambitious drive to save women from cervical cancer was assisted greatly by sending laboratory technicians to the Chelsea Hospital for Women in London to be educated in the technology needed.

Reluctance on the part of successive Irish governments to foster such a vital service for women during the past half century undoubtedly has resulted in loss of lives to a disease now being given prominence in our thoughts by the much-publicised plight of a reality TV star who died of the disease recently. But it is also timely to acknowledge that singular endeavour of Mother Mary Martin, foundress of Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, which is a fine physical structure that needs the reintroduction of the discipline and dedication which she inculcated into the ethos of that hospital. This can and must be restored.

Prof Austin Darragh

Tarabeg

Hill of Tara

Co Meath