Family’s statement on discovering their mother was affected by cervical cancer scandal

A young Irish woman has told of her family's heartbreak after finding out her mum was one of the 17 women affected by the cervical cancer scandal - six years after her death.

Grace Rattigan shared a lengthy statement on Facebook on behalf of her family. In the post, she began:

"Vicky Phelan, Irene Teap, and Emma Mhic Mhathúna all women you have heard about since this fiasco began. You can now add Catherine Reck to that list."

She explained that her mum had a routine smear test in November 2010 - and the results given to her were low-grade abnormalities. She was told to wait 6 months and return for a re-test, which Grace says was the procedure for when low-grade pre-cancerous cells were detected. She began to get irregular bleeding soon after this test, and when it got increasingly worse, she presented herself to a GP in April 2011. Grace's post continued:

"That GP then wrote to Cervical Check in [the] Hospital to say Catherine needed to be seen. The GP informed us at the time that they marked Catherine’s case as 'urgent'. "We found out that they had never marked Catherine’s case as urgent.

In August 2011, Catherine had a colposcopy and after that, she was told she had stage 3 cervical cancer. Catherine and her family faced "8 harrowing months" before she tragically passed away on April 13, aged 48. Grace explained that the audit of cervical tests has since uncovered the smear Catherine received in November 2010 had been incorrectly reported. She added:

"It was not low grade abnormalities, it was infact exceedingly high grade Abnormalities and needed immediate attention. "We have now been informed that had this been reported correctly the colposcopy would have been requested immediately and would have been conducted no later than January 2011. "Conversly, as a result of this discrepancy, the colposcopy was not carried out until August 2011. "7 months later, meaning treatment didn’t begin until October 2011. Almost a year after the incorrect smear test result was received. "Things could have been very different for all of us right now."

Describing how "it feels like a wound has been ripped open" and how the family feel they are starting their grieving all over again, Grace recalled their recent meeting with the same doctor who had diagnosed her mum. The family was brought into a colposcopy examination room, where the doctor told them they had been made aware of the discrepancies in Catherine's results in 2016. Grace said that the family are now numb, angry and that all of the 'what if's' suddenly feel entirely different. She wrote:

"We spent the last six years accepting that we were dealt a sh*tty hand, that bad things happen and unfortunately it happened to us. "To learn this could have potentially been avoided, it now feels like Catherine’s life and her positive impact on our lives was stolen. "Every milestone we have passed without her through cloudy eyes and heavy hearts now feel like an extension of this sense of being 'robbed'."

She ended the heartbreaking post by explaining how the family are ready to seek answers "for Catherine, her family and the other women and families who have been failed". She added:

"We want accountability. Above all else we want change. We never want this to happen to any woman or her family in this country again. "We never want this to happen to any woman or her family in this country again."