LIMERICK Cervical Check campaigner Vicky Phelan has announced that she has stopped her chemotherapy treatment, in her first health update since she announced she was returning to Ireland.
Speaking in a video on her Instagram account, Ms Phelan described the treatment as “like hell” and said she had been “horrendously ill” for two weeks following her first dose of chemo.
She revealed: “I am doing really well at the moment. I had my second dose of treatment on Monday (Pembro only) and, apart from feeling tired, I am doing really well. I made the decision to stop chemotherapy after my first dose on October 18. I was horrendously ill for almost two full weeks and I decided that I have had enough of putting my body through torture.
“At this stage, my treatment is palliative anyway. There is nothing else that can be done medically. And so, I decided that, for me, quality of life is far more important to me now than quantity of life if the extra time that I might get means that I have to go through hell for 2-3 weeks every month.”
Ms Phelan added that her main focus was to remain as well as she is now for Christmas “to be able to do the things that are important with my kids like shopping for clothes with my daughter, going to watch my son’s soccer matches, going for pizza”.
She thanked staff at the Milano restaurant in The Crescent Shopping Centre, who paid for her meal when she visited with family during the week.
Ms Phelan paid tribute to “the amazing staff” at the Mid-Western Cancer Centre at University Hospital Limerick, who she says welcomed her “with open arms last Monday. Thank you to Áine, Mairead and porter Christy who really minded me. I really missed that when I was away in America”.
Ms Phelan concluded by thanking all of her social media followers “for thinking of me, for praying for me, for sending positive energy my way and for worrying about me”.
