I’m fighting for my life… and for justice
When VICKY PHELAN was diagnosed with cervical cancer, she uncovered a medical scandal that affected hundreds of women in Ireland
AS she sat in the hospital room,Vicky Phelan was in shock. Her doctor had just broken the news that she had terminal cancer and had only a year to live.
“That day will be engraved on my memory forever,” saysVicky, 44. “I was shell-shocked and terrified to think my kids might not have their mum.”
Her diagnosis was hard to accept as had it not been for an incorrect smear result in 2011, it could have been prevented.
In 2008, the health service in Ireland introduced a screening programme called CervicalCheck, offering smear tests to all women aged 25-60.
Vicky had her first test that year, and another in 2011. Both times she was told no abnormal cells had been found.
So in 2014, when she had some irregular bleeding,Vicky thought there was no cause for concern.
“I knew something wasn’t right,” says Vicky, who lives in Limerick with husband Jim, 46, a carpenter, and children,Amelia, 14, and eight-year-old Darragh.
“But I never thought it was cancer. I was approaching 40 and assumed it was the start of perimenopause.”
Vicki saw her GP, and was referred for a cervical examination and biopsy.Two days later, her gynaecologist called with devastating news – she had cervical cancer.
An MRI scan revealed the cancer had spread from her cervix to her uterus.
Vicky was given radiotherapy and chemotherapy and at the end of the treatment, was overjoyed to be told she was in remission.
“I was so relieved to put it behind me,” she says.
But in 2017,Vicky developed lower back pain. Scans revealed the cancer was back and had spread.There was nothing doctors could do. “I was heartbroken, but I decided I would do everything I could to stay alive,” she says.
Vicky’s consultant told her the health service had carried out an audit of the smear test results of Irish women with cervical cancer. It turned out that her 2011 smear test result was incorrect.
“This meant I would have had cancer for six years, which was a very different diagnosis,” she says.
Later that month,Vicky went to hospital for a biopsy.A nurse left her medical file on the table and when Vicky leafed through it, she noticed something odd.
“There was a letter about the audit of my cervical smear test. At the bottom, in a tiny font, it read ‘page two of two’.”Vicky searched the folder for the first page, but found nothing. So she decided to dig deeper. “I work in administration with a lot of documents, so attention to detail is a big thing with me,” she says. “I suspected the front page had been taken out, either because of the timing of the report, or who the letter was sent to.
“I photographed everything in my file.”
As soon as she left the hospital,Vicky hired a lawyer to investigate.
“If I had been cancer-free, I probably wouldn’t have pursued it,” she says. “But once they told me the cancer was terminal, I knew I had to find out more before I got sick.”
Vicky prepared to sue the lab and the health service.
As her lawyers looked into the case, they realised Vicky wasn’t the only woman affected.There was a spreadsheet with 14 names on it, all redacted apart from Vicky’s.
“I couldn’t believe it – I thought it was just me,” she says. Vicky asked how she could tell the women on the list what had happened to her. Her lawyers said the only way to find out who they were was to go public with the case. In April, the lawsuit began. It emerged that an audit of cervical smear tests, from women who’d later been diagnosed with cervical cancer, had been undertaken in 2014.
In the audit,Vicky’s 2011 smear test was found to be a false negative. However,Vicky’s doctor was not told until 2016.
Her doctor urged the screening service to contactVicky and other patients whose test results were wrong, but they did not.
Eventually, a year later, he told the patients himself.
Had Vicky’s test result been correct in 2011, her cancer would have been caught early. Instead, she was dying.
“That was very hard to hear,” she says.
Her solicitors brought in an expert witness from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK.
And after hearing his testimony, the lab offeredVicky a settlement of €2.5million (£2.2million), but without admitting liability.
She accepted it, but was determined to keep fighting. “I just wanted an apology, but the lab refused to admit fault,” she says.
The case caught the attention of the media.
“I wouldn’t usually court publicity, but I knew it was the only way to raise awareness of what happened,” she says.
“I used every platform that I was given to highlight my case.”
At the same time,Vicky was fighting to get access to a new drug called Pembrolizumab.
“I was fighting for my life,” she says.
Before long, a public inquiry was launched into the scandal – and more victims were identified.
As the weeks rolled into months, the number of women affected kept rising and currently stands at 221.
Some of those women have died, others had to have hysterectomies.
“All we wanted was for someone to say sorry,” says Vicky.
In September 2018, an official report into the scandal was published.
IN IT, the report’s author, Dr Gabriel Scally, made 56 recommendations to prevent the tragedy from happening again.
And a scheme was launched to offer compensation to the other victims.
Vicky was thrilled.
“All my efforts finally felt vindicated,” she says.
But the media attention came at a personal cost.
The Monday after the court case, Vicky’s son, then seven, came home from school upset because a classmate had told him her cancer was terminal.
“Even though my kids knew the cancer was back, I didn’t tell them it was terminal because they didn’t need to know,” she says.
“But a little boy came up to Darragh in the school yard saying: ‘When is your mammy going to die?’
“He was very upset and that was very hard, having to tell my kids that my cancer was terminal.”
Since she started taking Pembrolizumab, Vicky’s tumours have shrunk and she is feeling well.
And she has been accepted on to a clinical trial in America, if the time comes when her current drug programme stops working.
Meanwhile, she is helping to advocate for other victims of the CervicalCheck scandal.
“I want to give people the courage to trust their instincts,” she says.
“You only get one body.You have to stand up for it.”
Overcoming: A Memoir byVicky Phelan (£14.99, Hachette Books Ireland) is available now. To order a copy call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562310 or visit expressbookshop.com