Kilkenny woman Vicky Phelan to launch powerful memoir next month

Campaigner and advocate Vicky Phelan from Mooncoin in South Kilkenny will launch her memoir Overcoming at a special ceremony next month.
When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her action against the HSE - she unearthed the medical and political scandal of our times.
Since then, Vicky has become women’s voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name.
In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances - and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action.
“If there’s any message I want people to take from this book, it is hope that, even in the hardest of times, life is worth living, one precious moment at a time,” said Vicky.
Vicky Phelan is mother to Amelia and Darragh, married to Jim and living in Limerick, Ireland. She is a lifelong learner and has always worked in the education field. She credits her education with giving her the tools to take on her greatest challenge - fighting for her life.
By going public on her court action against the HSE in 2018, she broke the cervical cancer scandal, where 221 known sufferers, including herself, were not told of a clinical audit that had revised their earlier negative smear tests: their cancers could possibly have been prevented. Since then she has become a household name in Ireland, for her powerful advocacy work to ensure that standards and accountability are brought to bear within the Irish health service so that what happened to her and others cannot happen again.
Vicky Phelan was named Kilkenny Person of the Year at an awards ceremony at the Newpark Hotel last November.
The mother-of-two has also received civic recognition from Kilkenny County Council for her bravery in highlighting issues with the cervical screening programme and her service to the people of Ireland.
Overcoming will be launched at a special ceremony at the Waterford Institute of Technology next month.
Vicky Phelan is a member of the 221 patient support group for the women directly affected by the scandal and continues to advocate on their behalf.