Vicky Phelan: ‘I had been to every gruelling treatment and now here I was with terminal cancer’

Vicky Phelan never set out to be a national campaigner. When she was first diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2014, her only concerns were for her two young children, Amelia and Darragh, and her recovery.She underwent aggressive treatment - radiation, chemotherapy and brachytherapy - and was eventually given the all-clear.In September 2017, during a routine checkup, she was told by her gynaecologist that an audit carried out by CervicalCheck found her 2011 smear test had been reported as a false negative.Weeks later, a CT scan revealed the cancer had returned. This time the diagnosis was terminal.Left alone with her patient file, she flipped it open and quickly realised something was wrong relating to her smear history and CervicalCheck. She decided to contact a lawyer. Within months she was outside the Four Courts making an explosive statement to awaiting journalists. A political and medical crisis ensued.Here, in an exclusive extract from her memoir, Overcoming, she recalls the devastation of finding out she had cervical cancer for the second time with little hope of surviving beyond 12 months.