'We Cherish The Memories' Vicky Phelan's Family Pay Tribute (2024)

Women's health advocate and cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has died at the age of 48. She passed awayin the early hours of Monday morning at Milford Hospice in Limerick.

As the nation reels from the loss of the inspiring and tireless campaigner, her family have shared a statement as they face the reality of life without her.

The poignant statement was shared by her family, her husband Jim and her two children Amelia, 16, and 11-year-old Darragh, on the Vicky's Tribe social media page.

'It is with an immense burden of grief, that earlier today we bade our final farewell to our beloved Vicky,' the heartwarming tribute began.

The tribute read: 'She was the heart & soul of our family unit & her passing will leave a void in all our lives, that at this point seems impossible to fill.'

'We cherish the memories of a loving wife, mother, daughter & sister, who's ability to deal with the struggles of life has inspired not only ourselves, but an entire nation.'

'The outpouring of grief & good wishes from far & wide are truly appreciated. Funeral arrangements when made will be private, with an opportunity for people to pay their respects in due course. Jim, Amelia & Darragh Phelan.'

Vicky had been quiet on social media for the last few months as she continued her own fight against cancer and the heartbreaking news of her death comes soon after her last social media post where she paid tribute to fellow cervical cancer fighter Lynsey Bennett.

In the emotional post, she gave her followers an update about her own health where she said she was not doing well.

Last year, Vicky travelled to the States to take part in a number of clinical trials with hopes of prolonging her life.

The mum-of-two spent six months in Maryland and had signed up for another six in Washington when she got the devastating news that her tumours had spread meaning she would no longer be able to avail of the new treatment plan.

With a 'heavy heart,' Vicky made the difficult decision last Septemberto return to Ireland where she could spend precious time with her family while undergoing palliative chemotherapy.

Even in her darkest days, the Limerick native found her silver lining, telling her Instagram followers: 'The 'good' news is that I can still have the treatment and that this treatment will keep me alive until Christmas at least.'

Vicky's story has touched the nation and beyond, the day she stood on the steps of the Four Courts in Dublin engrained in our memories forever. That day, on 25 April 2018, Vicky lifted the lid on what became one of the greatest political and medical scandals in Irish history.

Like the 220-plus women affected by the Cervical Check scandal, Vicky was failed by the Irish healthcare system and dragged through the courts to fight for her 'right to the truth'.

Vicky, who was given a false negative result following a smear test in 2011 and later developed terminal cancer, described her experience at the time as 'an appalling breach of trust.'

Vicky was diagnosed with cervical cancer in July 2014 at the age of 39. After a gruelling treatment plan, she received the all-clear in February 2015.

In September 2017, she found out about an audit conducted by the CervicalCheck screening programme three years earlier, in 2014, during a routine appointment with her gynaecologist. It’s then she learned that the result of her 2011 smear, which came back as normal and showed no abnormalities, had been incorrect.

That November Vicky’s cancer returned. She was diagnosed with an incurable Stage 4 cancer and given a life expectancy between six and twelve months, it's then she decided that she 'would do anything she could to stay alive.'

In 2018, Vicky filed a case against the HSE and Clinical Pathology Laboratories after obtaining her medical file. That April, Vicky settled her High Court action against the US lab which handled her smear for €2.5million. Her case against the HSE, meanwhile, was struck out.

At the time, Vicky told the High Court she was ‘extremely angry’ adding that if she had been told sooner she would ‘not be in a position of a terminal cancer diagnosis.’

Writing in her memoir Overcoming, which was published in 2019 and won Book of the Year, Vicky said her 'dying wish' was for the women of Ireland to 'trust that their lives are in safe hands, that they will be minded and cared for at their most vulnerable and that everything will be done to give them the lives they deserve, the time they deserve with the people they love who love them and who need them in the world.'

Vicky was born in Waterford in 1974 and lived in Limerick having always worked in the educational area. She is survived by her loving husband Jim and their two children Amelia and Darragh.

See more pictures of Vicky in the gallery: