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Vicky Phelan has returned to Ireland. File photo from 2019. Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Vicky Phelan returns to Ireland for palliative care after new tumours end US treatment

The mother-of-two said she hopes chemotherapy will keep her alive ‘until Christmas at least’.

CERVICALCHECK CAMPAIGNER VICKY Phelan has returned to Ireland to receive palliative chemotherapy after scans revealed new tumours.

The activist had been undergoing trial cancer treatment in the US state of Maryland. In a post on Instagram she told followers that, as the new tumours are “far too extensive”, she is no longer eligible for the treatment.

“I have two new tumours in my neck but the worrying one is a new tumour on my bowel,” Ms Phelan wrote.

This means that I am no longer eligible for proton beam therapy since my tumours are far too extensive, i.e. I have too much disease in my body for them to zap.

The medical team at Georgetown University Hospital in Maryland recommended that Ms Phelan return home to receive palliative chemotherapy.

“I returned home earlier this week and am taking the time to reconnect with my kids and to absorb this news before I start down the chemotherapy road,” Vicky said.

The mother-of-two said she hopes the chemotherapy will keep her alive for Christmas.

“The ‘good’ news is that I can still have treatment and that this treatment will keep me alive until Christmas at least. The bad news is that the treatment I am about to start on is extremely toxic and will take its toll on my body and my mind,” she said.

Ms Phelan added that she will be taking a break from social media over the next few weeks and thanked people for their support.

“As always, I would like to thank you all so very much for your support, your kindness, your generosity, your prayers and positive messages which continue to lift me and keep me going,” she wrote.

In April 2018, Ms Phelan settled her High Court case against a US laboratory that had examined her smear test results for €2.5 million.

In 2011, her smear test result had been reported to be clear of abnormalities; three years later she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. 

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    Mute William Mcgee
    Favourite William Mcgee
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    Jan 25th 2023, 9:44 AM

    Retrofitting is only available to the people with plenty of cash . Same as most other benefits .

    148
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    Mute An Drew Bearla
    Favourite An Drew Bearla
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    Jan 25th 2023, 9:23 AM

    All I read in the above article is that we need to lower our living standards drastically. I do not trust anyone who tells me we need to eat less meat and then replace it with processed crap.

    187
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    Mute Michael McGrath
    Favourite Michael McGrath
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    Jan 25th 2023, 9:33 AM

    @An Drew Bearla: Yes, all that came out of the big meeting in Davos is that we must stop eating meat and dairy or the world will starve, and we must share our cars or cycle or walk, all the mullarkey Ryan is spouting and all from a bunch that then sat down to a four course meat laden lunch after flying in on 1500 private jets. The narrative to blame the ordinary consumer and deflect away from their lavish carbon laden lifestyles is ridiculous. Animal farm springs to mind

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    Mute Tomo
    Favourite Tomo
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    Jan 25th 2023, 7:48 AM

    Will do this, will improve that. All talk and no action. The government has no motivation to implement any of these policies. Still using diesel commuter trains ffs.

    70
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    Mute Nicholas McMurry
    Favourite Nicholas McMurry
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    Jan 25th 2023, 8:19 AM

    @Tomo: We are making progress faster than ever before. I would live to speed it up too, but denial of what’s happening is nor helpful.

    23
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    Mute Barry Somers
    Favourite Barry Somers
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    Jan 25th 2023, 7:26 AM

    Bottom line is what comes out of our chimneys and out of the vehicle tailpipes isn’t good for us and has resulted in worse health for our population and more deaths. Even if you think climate change isn’t real (it is) then only a fool would continue to not tackle us poisoning ourselves.

    61
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    Mute Jim Buckley Barrett
    Favourite Jim Buckley Barrett
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    Jan 25th 2023, 7:35 AM

    @Barry Somers: a few more new taxes will sort everything.

    That’s the problem, the greens solution is to tax the problem with no alternative. Of course, people are turning against it

    315
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    Mute Nicholas McMurry
    Favourite Nicholas McMurry
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    Jan 25th 2023, 8:18 AM

    @Jim Buckley Barrett: Not true.

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    Mute Michael McGrath
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    Jan 25th 2023, 8:57 AM

    @Nicholas McMurry: Yes it is true. Tax tax tax from a fella that knows about as much about climate change as my 8yr old. All the solutions Eamo is pushing for at present are financially or infrastructurally unviable like hydrogen which is inhibitively expensive to make or offshore wind which we have no way due to planning restrictions and lack of infrastructure make, but which are the chief objectives of E3G which ol Eamo is/was a senior associate of, as usual the self serving bull we have gotten used to in Irish politics. Any man that signs off on tax incentives for fuel for private jets and the writing off of carbon footprint for such is not green. No viable alternatives for anything, no reduction in our carbon footprint despite all the waffle, lying about our agricultural footprint throwing our farmers and food producers under a bus because they are a soft target while letting big corporations off the hook by giving them all our carbon credits from our grasslands, hedgegrows and forestry. Ireland is not one of the worst polluters as we are so often told to justify taxing the life out of us we just fall foul of the carbon credit rules that the large industrial countries set up to make themselves look far better than they really are, America, Germany France etc

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    Mute David Van-Standen
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    Jan 25th 2023, 10:59 AM

    @Nicholas McMurry: of course its true, if the government and greens in particular wanted to actually do something that wasn’t a punitive tax measure, it would be a shock.

    Insulation is the most effective measure, yet they persist in making the retrofitting policy, part of the convoluted seai scheme which requires “trained” certified installers, when homeowners could, depending on their current skills learn to install it just as effectively themselves, by watching a few instructional videos, just like the “trained” installers did…

    Subsidising insulation for domestic projects with a zero vat rate, would encourage more people to retrofit insulation to their homes themselves, reducing the amount of heating from all sources, along with particulate and carbon emissions across the board.

    36
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    Mute Mary Nugent
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    Jan 25th 2023, 9:51 AM

    Better put the old age pension up. Where will all the food come from? More homes will be needed.

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    Mute Jason Stone
    Favourite Jason Stone
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    Jan 25th 2023, 11:49 AM

    Anyone find those TRVs (main image) a complete waste of time?
    I find that after a year the da*n thing is stuck on full heat. (I’ve checked the pin underneath and it seems to move freely) Was this just another way for the plumbers to make a few bucks :) ?

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    Mute David Stapleton
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    Jan 25th 2023, 5:05 PM

    So, if we live in England or Wales and insulate our homes we could live for 836,000 years. I don’t want to live that long.
    Why does an article in an Irish publication write about a foreign country without stipulating that it is a study done in that foreign country?

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