A letter of apology from the chief executive of the National Screening Service, Fiona Murphy, said on behalf of the service and the HSE it wished to apologise to Leona, and her family \u201cfor the failings that have occurred and led to your diagnosis\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The case was fast-tracked through the courts system because of the urgency of Leona\u2019s diagnosis. She also received an undisclosed settlement.<\/p>\n
Looking back, Leona said: \u201cWhen I see myself in court, I was going through chemo, I had no hair no eyebrows, I was about six stone, I never really realised how sick I was until I look back. I didn\u2019t realise it in the moment\u201d.<\/p>\n
Leona recalls how she had to talk to her family and explain they were going to hear things in court that was going to upset them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It was difficult for them, they see me just getting on with it, but when you hear about the situation in court, in that environment it suddenly becomes so serious.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a bit overwhelmed myself when I came out of court and the reaction to it. I have all the papers; I have the apology. I have loads of little bits that I hope my girls get to a stage where they’re like, oh my god, my mom has done this.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4797107_18_articleinline_Leona_20MackenC_0165.jpg\" "\\"")
Leona Macken: ‘When I see myself in court, I was going through chemo, I had no hair no eyebrows, I was about six stone, I never really realised how sick I was until I look back.’ Photo: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n
\u201cThe settlement also means we can go to the US for treatment if we want to, but really, you look at it and say, \u2018is that what my life is worth?\u2019”<\/p>\n
Her counsel, Jeremy Maher SC instructed by Cian O\u2019Carroll solicitors, told the High Court it was a truly tragic case. He said Ms Macken has now a limited life expectancy and \u201cwhat should have been stopped in its tracks was not.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leona’s second smear was conducted after the CervicalCheck scandal broke in 2018 following Vicky Phelan’s landmark court case. A review found that 221 women with cervical cancer had not been informed that their cancer had been misdiagnosed.<\/p>\n
During this time Leona went through two healthy pregnancies, unaware that abnormal cells in her cervix were developing.<\/p>\n
Leona says that from 2020-2023 she knew she was unwell; she had all the symptoms of cervical cancer, including discharge, pelvic pain. But despite all the scrutiny around the testing process, she struggled to get doctors to take her concerns seriously.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody said \u2018maybe your smear is wrong, and we\u2019ll do it again\u2019. I did everything I could to be well in my life, I did all my smears and looked after myself,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
\u201cI began to think people just thought I was complaining about nothing, but I knew something was not right.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was discharge and I was in a lot of pain, my cycle was off, I was always getting what I thought was thrush. I had an ultrasound and that came back fine too. I was getting to the stage where I felt embarrassed going to the doctor all the time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I had unexplained bleeding, and I just knew no way this is right. I kept going back to my doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another smear test was done in 2023, and Leona was diagnosed with stage one cancer. She underwent surgery to remove all of her reproductive system, but even after all that she knew that things were not right.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in pain and going through so much, but the doctors were telling me I was well, but I couldn\u2019t even stand in a queue because of the pain I was in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was referred to the pain clinic, I thought, well, maybe this will work if I get the pain injections, this is the answer to it, you know? But nothing changed.”<\/p>\n
When further tests in January uncovered a tumour, Leona said she felt \u201crelief\u201d rather than distress. She has now been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I wasn\u2019t going mad and there was a reason for my pain,\u201d she said. \u201cIn Ireland we are just so limited in our treatments and most of the time it is me telling the doctors that I know something is wrong and pushing them to listen.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Leona\u2019s chemotherapy treatment has finished, she still undergoes immunotherapy every three weeks, which will continue until next year, but says she can \u201cnever switch off\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore I eat anything I always ask myself, \u2018what will this do for me, will it be good in the long run?\u2019, you can\u2019t help it you are trying to do everything right,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She is also in touch with several hospitals abroad about alternative treatments. \u201cYou are always researching, and I feel in Ireland there is so much treatment we don\u2019t do, and we are looking at other options.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leona says her cancer also means her role in her family has changed.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/4797131_14_articleinline_Leona_20MackenC_0114.jpg\" "\\"")
Leona Macken still undergoes immunotherapy every three weeks. Photo: Moya Nolan<\/p>\n
\u201cI was the mammy. I had my part-time hairdressing job, I was always so independent, and I wanted the girls to see me like that. I was happy in my job, I loved it, I had beautiful work and a balance of home life. And then that was just all gone.”<\/p>\n
She has asked to meet the health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to help highlight issues she would like to see changed for women.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to talk to her about the audit [CervicalCheck Clinical Audit] and to reopen that.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leona says since her smear test in 2016 missed the presence of abnormal cells, she would like the audit to be extended to include women like her.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like to shine a light on this again and help make changes to the system for other women going through this because I do feel we are very behind and it\u2019s not good enough, women deserve better, and we know our own bodies.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leona Macken pulled out a chair and sat in the middle of her kitchen with her husband Alan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[258,34220,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-46329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cancer","tag-cervical-check","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}