CervicalCheck campaigner Vicky Phelan revealed that she received a letter of support from Joe and Jill Biden following her decision to stop receiving chemotherapy to treat her terminal cancer.
In a moving interview with Ryan Tubridy on Ireland's Late Late Show on Friday night, Phelan said that the President and First Lady told her that they were praying for her in her "difficult" battle with cancer.
Phelan was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2018 and recently announced on Instagram that she had decided to stop receiving chemotherapy due to the "horrendous" side effects, stating that she was emphasizing quality of life over quantity of life.
She told Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy that she was now focusing on making "memories" with her family before she dies.
"I don’t want to die, I’m a young woman, I have young children, that’s what made me want to fight for them … You still want more, everyone wants more," Phelan told Tubridy on Friday night.
She said that her reaction to chemotherapy was so bad that she couldn't get out of bed for almost two weeks and added that her ten-year-old son Darragh wouldn't come into her room.
"A lot of people don’t talk about this - the horrors of the treatment is often worse than the disease itself."
Phelan settled a High Court action in 2018 after her CervicalCheck returned an incorrect smear test. Her ceaseless campaigning has helped bring the CervicalCheck scandal to light, which has affected more than 100 women.
She told Tubridy that she recently feared that she wouldn't make it until Christmas.
"Four weeks ago I didn’t think I’d see Christmas, that’s how real this is for me … At this stage, I’ve been fighting this terminal part of the disease since 2018."
Phelan recently returned to Ireland from a trip to the United States where she was trialing a new experimental drug to help buy her more time with her children. She said that it was a "big disappointment" to learn that the drug had not been successful.
"I really thought I'd get another couple of years on that drug but it just didn't work for me. And I was having terrible side effects with it.
"I'd invested so much in it. I'd taken such a risk going away on my own. And in my situation... time is limited."
She said that she missed her children throughout her time in America and said that she would have never gone to the States last January if she knew that no one would be allowed to visit her.
Phelan also said that she starts to get upset when she thinks about the milestones she will miss with her children, such as her 16-year-old daughter Amelia's leaving cert in around two years' time.
Phelan additionally discussed her funeral plans on Friday night, stating that she hopes to have a humanist service with "a bit of color".
"I want a humanist ceremony and I want it to be a celebration, I don’t want people wearing black, I want color.
"I don’t want doom and gloom, I want music."
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