Vicky Phelan

Vicky Phelan was an Irish healthcare campaigner and mother of two. She became a household name in Ireland after her court action against the HSE in 2018, which broke the CervicalCheck cancer scandal, where 221 known sufferers, including herself, were not told of a clinical audit that had revised earlier test results: their cancers could possibly have been prevented. In the years to follow, she was involved in powerful public advocacy, to ensure that standards and accountability were brought to bear within the Irish health service so that what happened to her and others could not happen again. Overcoming: A Memoir won the An Post Book of the Year Award in 2019. Vicky passed away in November 2022 at the age of forty-eight.