Emma Mhic Mhathúna, one of the most prominent CervicalCheck campaigners, passed away yesterday at the age of 37.
The mother of five was one of the 221 women found to have received incorrect smear test results during a clinical audit.
Stephen Teap, who lost his wife Irene to cancer last year, describes the news of Emma's death as heartbreaking and says she showed "tremendous courage" in going public with her own case.
"She took the fight publicly and wanted to highlight what went wrong with the system. She wanted justice for herself and also for her children."
Stephen says the Scally report's fifty recommendations must now be implemented to improve the cervical screening programme, which would honour Emma's memory and the other women affected.
"Nothing can undo the damage that's been done. All we can do is fix what went wrong here."
Orla Kelly, a partner in the medical negligence department at Cantillons Solicitors in Cork, says Emma "fought for justice, for transparency and for improved services for herself and for others."
She says questions now need to be asked about the labs.
"It's a very necessary service that we have cervical screening, but maybe these labs aren't right for us. If we haven't looked at them and asked the right questions, we can't improve the service."
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