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VICKY PHELAN HAS said a revolutionary drug treatment she has been undergoing appears to be working and her tumours have shrunk significantly.
Phelan was instrumental in bringing the CervicalCheck scandal to light with her High Court action against a US laboratory over incorrect smear test results from 2011. In January, the mother-of-two was told she had six months to live.
Yesterday, having had three doses of an immunotherapy drug, she was told by her doctor that it is already having an effect. Speaking to RTÉ’s Ray D’Arcy, she said she got the news in a salon with her sister and some friends where they were getting their hair and makeup done for a gig last night.
I said ‘If this is bad news, I really don’t want to know.’ He nearly cut across me, he said: ‘Absolutely not, Vicky’. He was bursting to tell me to be honest. He said ‘This is just absolutely fantastic news’. He said: ‘You’re just absolutely not going to believe it’. He said ‘there is significant shrinkage in your tumours’.
“There was mascara running down faces, the makeup being touched up, but it was worth it,” she said.
Phelan explained that this drug, unlike chemotherapy, does not “flood your body” with the drug, it is more exact. Instead, it helps the patient’s own immune system to identify the cancer in the tumours and attack the disease itself.
Although she said she is realistic about her situation and does not see this drug as a cure for her cancer, she believes it may allow her to manage the disease longterm.
She said her doctor told her this progress will make a significant difference for other patients and for cancer treatment in Ireland in general. At the moment, she said only around 100 people in the country are on the drug and all are on clinical trials.
“It took nine weeks of blood, sweat and tears fighting for it,” she told D’Arcy.
“I just wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“When you’re put in a situation like mine, when you’re given a terminal diagnosis and nobody gives you any hope, you know, you’ll do whatever you have to do to get the drug if you think it’s going to work.”
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Surrogacy is exploitative IMHO. No one, gay or straight, is entitled to be a parent. I know that’s harsh but it’s also true.
@Sean Ryan: entitled? Yes I think that’s a fair point but those who can’t have children or have difficulty having them or those in same sex relationships should be given every opportunity to fulfil that need. I have met people who not been able to have children. It has cost them huge amounts of money even relationships & I think these people often deserve more help and support.
@Allora: I see it as a “want” rather than a “need”. People can be supported in wanting a child without surrogacy.
Babies rights ignored as usual
The whole idea of surrigacy is gruesomd
I’ve heard the same people make the argument that the sex trade commodities women’s bodies to the highest bidder, whilst also supporting surrogacy which commodities women’s bodies to the highest bidder.
@Ivor McTin: Really? You’re comparing someone bringing a life into the world to someone getting their hole? You do realise in the majority of cases surrogate mothers don’t actually have sex with the father. Why do you find a woman doing the most natural thing in the world- having a baby, offensive if it’s entirely a free and willing choice?
@David F. Dwyer: having a someone else’s baby for cash, without having to do the deed, is hardly what one would call “the most natural thing in the world” mate – lolz.
Also you are projecting “offense” on to the guy’s post. He was making an observation about other people – not getting outraged himself – jeez.
@UK Hurling Bloke: Why did you put “offense” in quotes when I used the adjective in its correct form, not a misspelling of the noun? Try reading what a person says instead of projecting yourself, you dink.
P.S. sorry for you that you consider procreation unnatural.
@David F. Dwyer: it’s not a free and willing choice, it’s a lucrative and willing choice.
@Coco Walsh: So what?
Because Ireland clearly has not faked enough birth certificates in the past
Sorry to break it to some of you, but not every surrogate does it for money.. some offer to become a surrogate for friends or family because all other options have been exhausted… it’s the greatest gift that can be given …
have your say