FINE GAEL GENERAL election candidate Nikki Bradley has apologised for remarks in which she said that the county of Donegal had a “negative attitude”.

The senator of four months who lost out on a Dáil seat at the weekend received backlash for the comments in which she accused voters of “hyper-focusing” on certain issues.

In the interview with Highland Radio, she said she was not downplaying the struggles of Donegal constituents, but rather reminding them to “find moments of happiness”.

Today, Bradley told Donegal Daily that she didn’t realise how the remarks came across and that she had let herself down.

“I want to apologise to the people of Donegal in general and the people that voted for me,” she said.

“If there’s anybody that voted for me and now feels disappointed by what they saw over the weekend, I want to clarify that how it came across was absolutely not how I intended it.

“Having spent 11+ years working with my Fighting Fit for Ewings campaign and working with national disability charities, I have been working incredibly hard to try and improve situations for people.

I let myself down with how I worded everything.

She added: “Hindsight is a wonderful thing. I didn’t realise how it came across until I saw it back.”

Bradley, who is from Milford, received 3,658 first preference votes but was eliminated on the 14th count. Her running mate John McNulty also failed to win a seat, receiving a similar number of votes.

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In the radio interview on Saturday that went viral, Bradley said: “I do think attitudes in Donegal also need to change. I believe that there is a very negative attitude in this county and I would absolutely love to be in the party, but to be part of that change.”

Asked to clarify if she meant that the negativity was within the Fine Gael party in Donegal, Bradley said: “Within the county in general.”

“It’s something that I feel everywhere I go … there are certain issues in the county that we’re hyper focusing on and there’s many others that [are] falling by the wayside.

“I really did just want to get that point in,” she added.

Presenter Greg Hughes gave some examples of big issues in Donegal, including the 7,000 homes crumbling from mica, 118 children waiting months for a CAHMS assessment, and 350 families waiting for carers.

He said it’s “very hard to be positive” if you’re one of the people experiencing these things.

Bradley responded: “To be honest, I don’t agree.

“I’ve been in a lot of those situations. I’ve sat in A&E in Letterkenny last Christmas for 15 hours on a chair that wasn’t suited to me as an amputee.

“I’ve had to travel to multiple countries for surgeries. I had to have my treatment down in Dublin because it wasn’t suitable to have it up here.”

Bradley was diagnosed with Ewing’s Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer, when she was 16. She has since had two hip replacements and more recently she had her leg amputated.

She became a motivational speaker in her 20s, founding Fighting Fit For Ewing’s, which aims to raise awareness about the disease as well as participating in physical challenges.

“I have been there … I’m just trying to remind people that I’m absolutely not underplaying what people are going through and I would hope that your listeners wouldn’t ever think that,” she continued.

“We can still go through this and find moments of happiness.

“If you get up every day and you only focus on the area of your life that there’s something wrong, you’re the one that’s going to lose out in the end.

“There’s still a million things out there that can bring a smile to your face.

“I do think that I have enough lived experience to be able to say that without being preachy.”