A terminally-ill woman who is hoping to access the potentially life-saving cervical cancer drug Pembrolizumab says she's too young to die.
The drug - widely referred to as Pembro - is currently available to patients with several other forms of cancer, but is not yet licenced in Europe for use treating cervical cancer.
Vicky Phelan - whose legal action brought the Cervical Check scandal to public attention earlier this year - says that the drug has helped reduce the size of her tumours and helped improve her quality of life.
Labour Health Spokesperson Alan Kelly is now calling on the Health Minister Simon Harris to have the drug funded for all cervical cancer patients 'as soon as possible'.
Speaking to the media outside @OireachtasNews with @alankellylabour @PhelanVicky Aine Morgan and Tracey Brennan about access to Pembro pic.twitter.com/R2LFhMKVQn
— The Labour Party (@labour) December 5, 2018
The Labour TD believes negotiations could be sorted by the weekend.
He suggested: “Minister Harris needs to outline a clear timetable as to when Pembro will be made available to the women it is suitable for."
Aine Morgan from Galway says time is not on her side.
She explained: "I have exhausted absolutely every therapy that's out there - there's nothing out there.
"To be honest with you, I think I'm too young to die just quite yet. There's other women like myself out there, and we shouldn't be put out there having to fundraise and having to put our names out there... we're dealing with enough on a daily basis.
"We need the Government to push this and push it now, because we don't have the luxury of time on our side."
The State has previously offered to fund the expensive drug for the 221 women affected by the Cervical Check crisis.
Last month, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government is looking into ways to make the drug more accessible to those who need it, and to resolve the current inequality.
However, he highlighted that the drug is not yet licenced by the EU for use in treating cervical cancer - creating a 'difficulty' in introducing full access for patients.
