Vicky Phelan - a name that will echo throughout the future generations of this country for what she has done, and will do, for the women of Ireland.
Back in 2011, unknown to her at the time, Vicky was given incorrect results to a smear test she had taken at CervicalCheck, the national cervical-cancer screening service.
Then in 2014, after another routine screening, the 43-year-old was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She completed the treatment and was was given the all clear the following year only to be told this January that it had returned. Except this time, it was terminal.
The Limerick lady then discovered something peculiar in her medical file, a discovery that exposed one of the biggest disgraces Ireland has ever witnessed - the CervicalCheck Scandal.
Throughout 2018, Ms Phelan has campaigned for the rights of the hundreds of misdiagnosed women, and future cervical cancer sufferers, and was awarded a €2.5m settlement in a High Court back in April.
Speaking on The Ian Dempsey Breakfast Show on Today FM, where Vicky has been voted Irish Woman of the Year in our End of Year Poll, she reveals her plans for 2019,
“I’m still going to be campaigning" she says and reveals how “I’ve a documentary coming out so were doing a lot of work on that”.
“I’ve also started work on a book … I suppose the idea of the book was to give my kids really, if anything does happen to me, stories that I may not get around to telling them”. Expected to be out next Autumn - it has bestseller written all over it.
Ian was honoured to tell her the news that out of all sixteen categories, she received the highest amount of votes. An overwhelming win. To which her reply was,
“I never got into this for awards back in April but I totally appreciate everything that I’m getting. It’s fantastic”
“A lot of what I’m doing is kind of … fighting and making phone calls to try and get things happening so this is the nice part of it … to get recognised for it”
“I have been blown away to be honest by the Irish public. We forget how good we are at getting behind causes and campaigns … so thank you to everybody”
This accolade will go nicely with her being last month being named on the BBC 100 Women list which “shares inspirational, difficult and surprising stories from women all over the world”.
Her infamous quote, "They were expecting a very sick woman… but they weren’t expecting me", will live long with her legacy.
In a world where the term 'hero' is flung about with no regard, it's a privilege to see a real one.
Check out the chat in full by pressing the play button in the image at the top of the page.
