Michael D flies in to meet Emma
EMMA Mhic Mhathúna, one of the women who had a delayed cervical cancer diagnosis, met with President Michael D Higgins yesterday close to her home in west Kerry – and said it was a ‘wow’ moment.
The President and his wife, Sabina, flew into Ballydavid by helicopter and landed on the Gaelic football pitch before meeting Emma and her five young children in O’Gorman’s Guest House.
As well as calling for accountability for the smear test scandal, she asked for the President to intervene as she believed the Government was ‘delaying’ taking any proper action.
‘The meeting was quite discreet and intimate,’ she told the Daily Mail last night. ‘But coming out of our house and seeing the helicopter flying in, it was just “wow”. Knowing that, one: someone was coming by helicopter to see us and, two: it was the President. The kids were so excited.
‘He arrived about 4.45pm and stayed for about an hour. There were introductions and then myself and my older two boys, Séamus and Mario, sang him two Irish songs. He was really delighted with that and we gave Sabina some wild flowers.
‘He chatted with the children and then I had about 25 minutes of a private conversation with him, his wife and two secretaries. We had lunch together here. At one point my six-year-old son tipped him on the shoulder and asked if it was okay if he played outside. That’s how innocent children are.’
The 37-year-old was told by doctors last week her cancer, which she was first diagnosed with in September 2016, had returned but that this time it was terminal. She had learned days earlier her smear test in 2013 had been read incorrectly.
Ms Mhic Mhathúna said: ‘It was obvious President Higgins was so genuinely concerned about what’s going on with the women of Ireland. And he’s not happy about it, he’s upset about it. I think there are things he can do to help, he does meet regularly with the Taoiseach. So I made several suggestions.
‘I definitely got the impression that it [smear test scandal] is being looked at. I got a chance to tell my story and he was genuinely shocked. Now he’s able to go back and say, “This is what’s happening.” He heard it form the horse’s mouth. They both thanked me for being so open about what’s gone on. And he complimented me on my children. And, guess what? We got invited to one of their garden parties. After the Late Late Show on Friday we got tickets for the Toy Show, so I tell you, we’re doing well as a family.
‘But honestly, these are special memories for my kids. All I seem to be saying over the last couple of weeks is, “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe the cervical checks went wrong, I can’t believe it was me, I can’t believe I’ve had a biopsy, I can’t believe I have cancer. I can’t believe the President has come to visit me...” I can’t keep up.’
Last night President Higgins described his meeting with Emma as ‘valuable and wonderful’.
Today the mother-of-five will undergo a PET scan at a hospital in Cork to help determine a full prognosis. ‘That’s the last test they do,’ she said. ‘It’ll be good to get it out of the way.’