When Billy met Vicky: ‘You have to fight with all your might’
Cancer campaigner spoke to Billy Keane on the eve of US trip for treatment that may extend her life
Vicky Phelan is heading to America tomorrow to begin experimental treatment she hopes will give her several more years with her family. Read Billy Keane’s interview with the cervical cancer campaigner inside.
ONLY Vicky would allow herself to be painted inside out. Our Vicky Phelan is terminally ill and she needed to take care of her affairs.
The portrait you see here by Offaly artist Vincent Devine is her last will and testament. And we the people are the beneficiaries.
There are shamrocks painted on her heart. A sign of her love for us and the practical patriotism she aspires to.
She has donated her body to her own people.
“That’s how I get my kicks,” she says.
Vicky was badly treated by the health system. There was a mix-up and the delay informing her of a diagnosis of cervical cancer was a death sentence.
Her courage and intelligence revealed what has become known as the cervical cancer scandal.
Vicky’s fight for justice opened the door for many more women who had not been told of their diagnosis. But most of you know that already.
Vicky is a gas woman. “I do have a bit of the student in me,” she says.
The student days in the University of Limerick were the happiest of her life. You sense she would love to have those carefree days back again.
“I live like I’m dying. I take my opportunities. You could say to yourself, ‘I have six months’, and if you give in, you will be gone in six months.” I ask her about the painting. “I wanted the portrait to be up front and open, showing me warts-and-all.”
She has a long piece of metal in her right thigh, from an accident in France. Her boyfriend was killed in the terrible crash and her friend was paralysed. Vicky was 20 and she almost died. She did actually die for a small while.
“I’m not a believer in God but when I died in France my grandmother kept on coming back to me. She said, ‘Vicky, you are not ready yet – you have too much to do’.
“I remembered that when I came to. I believe those who died are still with you for a reason and I will be with my children and my family to help them after I die.”
Vicky has too much love for her children to leave them any time ever. She is an Irish mother and there is no more powerful or loving force on Earth, or in the next life.
Her life is colour-coded. The tumours in the portrait look like coloured slugs with nodes. There are shamrocks on her heart to show her love for the Irish people.
The hope and spirituality is in the hands.
The bird resting on her left hand is a crimson rosella and represents her daughter Amelia, who is 15. Strong and independent she is, says her mom.
The artist Vincent Devine tells me “the crimson rosella change colour when they come to adulthood”.
The oak leaf in her left hand is for her boy Darragh, aged 9. He is a sapling and will grow big and strong.
There is a pink strip on Vicky’s left cheek. This represents her erogenous zones. She has long been an advocate for the sexual health of cancer patients. There are life lines everywhere.
I ask her if there’s hope. “I’m heading off for America on Sunday,” she says. “Doonbeg, where I posed for the portrait, looks out to America, where I am going for experimental treatment. I might get another two or three years out of that.”
Earlier she said to me: “Cancer people must fight with all their might to extend their lives.”
Mary Leahy from Galway set up Heroes Aid with three friends back at the beginning of the pandemic. Mary asked Vicky if she would sit for the portrait as a fundraiser.
Mary is a nurse and is passionate about backing up our carers on the frontline. Mary said: “Back in 2008, when the cuts were made to the health service, it was a financial
exercise. There was a lack of pay and morale. The graduate nurses all left. The work-life balance was all wrong.
“The healthcare professionals went abroad, where they had time off and weren’t stressed. The Irish nurses felt undervalued, but then Covid came and they learned just how much they were appreciated.
“When the first wave came, we saw a need for support and Heroes Aid was founded. We fund-raised for PPE for nurses. There have been 1,500 drops already.”
Heroes Aid provides psychological care. Mary sees the need for a radical overhaul of how we treat our frontliners.
When Vicky travelled up to Tullamore to see artist Vincent Devine, she said to Mary: “If this fella loves himself, I’m gone.”
She needn’t have worried. Devine (34) is sound. He reminds me of Seamus Heaney. The head is in Heaven but he is rooted in the Earth.
Vincent, Mary and Vicky clicked.
Vincent said: “We spent 12 hours chatting. We went through her life story in detail. I looked at the portrait as attaching the visible to the invisible. Vicky’s plan is to make people aware of their own bodies. I asked my wife Lynne for advice as to how a woman would see things.
“Look into the eyes,” he says. “Look at the soft maternal nurturing.
“The eyes are a greenish blue and go into brownish in the centre. Be open. Be active. Be an advocate. Open up. That’s the message in the eyes.”
I phoned Vicky just now. Vincent says we can all take our own interpretation from the painting.
Vincent had Vicky sit for him on a chair in the surf at Doonbeg, where Vicky’s ashes will be scattered.
So I ask: “Vicky, the way your legs are stretched out, is it like showing off your legs on a beach or in a pub?”
She gets a fit of laughter. “No,” she says. “The chair was sinking into the sand and if I didn’t stretch out, I would have fallen into the water.”
I wish her luck in America.
The portrait of Vicky Phelan is to be auctioned live online by Philip Sheppard – who has worked tirelessly on the project – on February 4 at 2pm. All of the proceeds are going to Heroes Aid. Anyone can watch or bid on sheppards.ie.