Woman affected by CervicalCheck scandal confirms that her cancer has spread

Orla went on national radio to discuss her case on Friday.

A woman who was affected by the Cervical Check scandal, which saw several woman diagnosed with various stages of undetected cervical cancer, has confirmed that the illness has spread to her lymph nodes. The woman, who is going only by her first name Orla, first spoke publicly on RTÉ's Liveline back in April. She mentioned that she first noticed that she'd developed symptoms of the disease back in 2015, only to be diagnosed with cervical cancer some time after. On 3o May of that year, she saw a private gynaecologist who discovered a very large tumour. Orla said that she, like so many others, had received false negatives on her smear tests back in 2011 and 2014. She is now dealing with Dr Gabriel Scally to assist with his scoping review. Speaking on Joe Duffy again today, Orla said that her cancer has now spread to her lymph system. She said the disease is at a “moderate stage” but that it has spread almost as far as her kidneys. “Obviously it was very shocking and devastating news,” she said. Orla said she did not want to disclose the time period given by her doctor but said it “wasn’t very positive”. She said the only effective treatment on offer now is immunotherapy, similar to the treatment Vicky Phelan is receiving. Orla will start the treatment as part of a trial next month. “It offers a hope,” she told Duffy. Orla is due to sit down with Minister Simon Harris in the coming week to discuss her case. The Cervical Check scandal, which was brought to light when terminally-ill mother-of-two Phelan was awarded €2.5 million in a High Court settlement against a laboratory based in Texas following a misdiagnosed smear test in 2011. The media storm which surrounded the case caused HSE head Tony O'Brien to resign, following the emergence of a series of damning internal HSE memos and public pressure to do so.