Hero campaigner Vicky tops list of ’10 people who most affected our lives’

Kilkenny mother-of-two Vicky Phelan has topped a list of ’10 people who most affected our lives’ over the past decade.

The hero cervical cancer campaigner was the first person on the list published by the Irish Independent.

Headlined ‘The woman who lifted lid on a health scandal’, the Moocoin woman was described as someone who is “seen as a heroine by many and someone who represents the very best of Ireland”.

The tribute adds: “The 45-year-old is terminally ill with cervical cancer although she has been raging against the dying of the light for years. It was she who lifted the lid on what was one of the greatest political and medical scandals in Irish history – like hundreds of other women with cancer, she had initially been given the all-clear by the CervicalCheck screening process.

“But the system was deeply flawed and, unbeknownst to her, the cancer progressed beyond the treatment stage. By the time the error had been identified, Phelan and at least 200 other women faced a death sentence. Had the smear identified the illness, the chances are that the cancer would have been found in time.”