Vicky Phelan is mother to Amelia and Darragh, married to Jim and living in Limerick, Ireland. She is a lifelong learner and has always worked in the education field. She credits her education with giving her the tools to take on her greatest challenge - fighting for her life. By going public on her court action against the HSE in 2018, she broke the cervical cancer scandal, where 221 known sufferers, including herself, were not told of a clinical audit that had revised their earlier negative smear tests: their cancers could possibly have been prevented.
Since then she has become a household name in Ireland, for her powerful advocacy work to ensure that standards and accountability are brought to bear within the Irish health service so that what happened to her and others can not happen again. Overcoming: A Memoir is her first book.