Overcoming: The powerful, compelling, award-winning memoir
Vicky Phelan
Sep 2019 · Hachette UK
4.9star
15 reviewsreport
Ebook
320
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About this ebook
Sunday Times Memoir of the Year 2019
An Post Irish Book of the Year 2019
When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her action against the HSE - she unearthed the medical and political scandal of our times. It would emerge that, like Vicky, 220 other women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed that a clinical audit -carried out by the national screen programme CervicalCheck - had revised their earlier, negative smear tests. Their cancers could possibly have been preventable.
Since then, Vicky has become women's voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name.
In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances - and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action.
An inspiring story of rare resilience and power, Overcoming is an account of how one woman can move mountains - even when she is fighting for her own life - and of finding happiness and strength in the toughest of times.
'Calls to mind the work of Emilie Pine, or the memoir by Maggie O'Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am ... Overcoming is more than the retelling of an extraordinary life. Its pacing and gentleness leaves plenty of room for tears and for reflection' Irish Independent
An Post Irish Book of the Year 2019
When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her action against the HSE - she unearthed the medical and political scandal of our times. It would emerge that, like Vicky, 220 other women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed that a clinical audit -carried out by the national screen programme CervicalCheck - had revised their earlier, negative smear tests. Their cancers could possibly have been preventable.
Since then, Vicky has become women's voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name.
In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances - and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action.
An inspiring story of rare resilience and power, Overcoming is an account of how one woman can move mountains - even when she is fighting for her own life - and of finding happiness and strength in the toughest of times.
'Calls to mind the work of Emilie Pine, or the memoir by Maggie O'Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am ... Overcoming is more than the retelling of an extraordinary life. Its pacing and gentleness leaves plenty of room for tears and for reflection' Irish Independent
Ratings and reviews
4.9
15 reviews
Mary Coughlan
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November 6, 2019
Amazing. There are mo words.
2 people found this review helpful
Marie Briscoe
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September 20, 2019
What an incredible lady ❤
4 people found this review helpful
About the author
Vicky Phelan was an Irish healthcare campaigner and mother of two. She became a household name in Ireland after her court action against the HSE in 2018, which broke the CervicalCheck cancer scandal, where 221 known sufferers, including herself, were not told of a clinical audit that had revised earlier test results: their cancers could possibly have been prevented. In the years to follow, she was involved in powerful public advocacy, to ensure that standards and accountability were brought to bear within the Irish health service so that what happened to her and others could not happen again.
Overcoming: A Memoir won the An Post Book of the Year Award in 2019.
Vicky passed away in November 2022 at the age of forty-eight.
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