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'I have nightmares about this' - Vicky Phelan to campaign for 'right to die' bill

Patient advocate and cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan says she will campaign for a 'right...
Jack Quann
Jack Quann

14.42 1 Sep 2020


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'I have nightmares about this' - Vicky Phelan to campaign for 'right to die' bill


Jack Quann
Jack Quann

14.42 1 Sep 2020


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Patient advocate and cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan says she will campaign for a 'right to die' bill when the Dáil reconvenes.

Former government minister John Halligan introduced the Dying with Dignity Bill in 2015, however it was never passed by the Oireachtas.

Solidarity-People Before Profit TD Gina Kenny is due to resurrect the bill later this month.

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Ms Phelan told Andrea Gilligan on Lunchtime Live that she has thought a lot about the issue.

"I am fully in support of this bill - I was approached by Gino Kenny sometime over the summer.

"He told me that he was going to take on this bill and bring it forward and introduce it to the Dáil when they return in September, and wanted to know would I support him with campaigning for this bill to be brought forward.

"And I said 'absolutely' - I have a huge vested interest in this, I've done a number of articles about it already, and to be honest even before I was diagnosed with cancer I would have been in favour of it.

"I have seen people, family members, die who had been terminally ill with cancer.

"And I think until you see that, you don't realise how much pain and suffering some people are in.

"And while I strongly support palliative care - they do fantastic work - I do recognise that it cannot relieve all end-stage suffering.

"There is a period towards the end, particularly with some particular cancers, that it's very hard to control the pain - and mine is one of those cancers.

"And I suppose because I'm so young and I have such young children, I have nightmares about this to be honest.

"These things keep me awake at night, and it's the not knowing whether or not I'm going to kind of suffer unbearably really at the end of it, the thought of my children particularly having to watch me in agony really keeps me awake at night."

She says she has discussed it with her family, particularly her older daughter.

"My daughter, she was 15 two days ago, it's something I've spoken about with her.

"She will obviously see things online and hear me doing interviews, so it's something that I've brought up with her.

"I haven't discussed it necessarily with my son, he's only nine, he doesn't need to know these things, I'm trying to protect him at his age.

"But definitely with the 15-year-old she's aware I'm having these conversations and she fully supports me".

"I've always been a control freak... I've planned everything in my life and I'm at the stage already - even though I'm not anywhere near dying yet - but I've already started to plan the way I want my funeral to go, I'm just one of those type of people.

"This is no different, and I suppose the way I look at it is - particularly for my family and for my children - and for me, I don't see why I should have to suffer like that.

"It's not like it's something that I want to choose today or tomorrow, I've a great quality of like at the moment - that's the point.

"It's when I get to a stage where I know there's no coming back - when they tell me that literally it's a week or two weeks - that's when I want to have this available so that I'm not having to worry about my family watching me linger and waiting for me to die".

"I'm just hoping that when the Dáil comes back in September, I would really ask all of the 160 TDs to really engage in this debate about this bill and to think about their positions now before the bill is introduced."

'I have nightmares about this' - Vicky Phelan to campaign for 'right to die' bill

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Main image:  Vicky Phelan her way into the Dail in 2019 to hear the Taoiseach apologise to the victims of the CervicalCheck controversy. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

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