{"id":509713,"date":"2026-06-20T14:28:22","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509713\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T14:28:22","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T14:28:22","slug":"it-would-save-so-many-lives-cork-woman-calls-for-lung-cancer-screening-programme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/509713\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;It would save so many lives&#8217;: Cork woman calls for lung cancer screening programme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A lung cancer screening programme is urgently needed in Ireland, a Cork woman living with the devastating disease has said.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/munster\/arid-41625247.html\"> Gillian Ryan<\/a> called on people to take part in the State screening service&#8217;s call for suggestions on future development of programmes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Previous open calls led to the addition of two rare diseases to the screening programme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms Ryan was diagnosed with lung cancer days after turning 40.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">As a non-smoker and active sportswoman, the mother of two was shocked.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIf there was a national screening programme people could avail of, it would save so many lives,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5123964_6_articleinline_NO_20REPRO_20FEE...BREAKTHROUGH_20CANCER_20RESEARCH_20MX2.jpg\" alt=\"Breakthrough Cancer Research chief executive Orla Dolan; lung cancer survivor Samantha Vaughan; minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill; and lung cancer survivor Gillian Ryan launch Ireland\u2019s white ribbon for lung cancer at Leinster House. Picture: Maxwells\" title=\"Breakthrough Cancer Research chief executive Orla Dolan; lung cancer survivor Samantha Vaughan; minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill; and lung cancer survivor Gillian Ryan launch Ireland\u2019s white ribbon for lung cancer at Leinster House. Picture: Maxwells\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Breakthrough Cancer Research chief executive Orla Dolan; lung cancer survivor Samantha Vaughan; minister for health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill; and lung cancer survivor Gillian Ryan launch Ireland\u2019s white ribbon for lung cancer at Leinster House. Picture: Maxwells<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">A pilot screening programme runs in Dublin, funded by the Irish Cancer Society.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cIt\u2019s great that pilot is there but at the same time it needs to be accessible and available to all,\u201d Ms Ryan said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cWe screen bowels, we screen breast and we screen cervix.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\n            Lung cancer kills more people than all of those combined and we still don\u2019t screen lung cancer, it\u2019s not a niche issue. In Ireland lung cancer is responsible for one in every five cancer deaths.\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In her own case, she had no visible symptoms as is common with this disease. She said it was only \u201cknowing there was something wrong in my own body\u201d that led her to seek testing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Ms Ryan also led out on calls for a <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/news\/arid-41654642.html\"> white ribbon campaign to support research into lung cancer<\/a>. This was launched last year by Breakthrough Cancer Research.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has said: &#8220;NSAC\u2019s 2026 Call for Submissions offers an important opportunity to help shape the future of screening in Ireland.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Submissions can be made for free through the Department of Health website on a link titled Call for Submissions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A lung cancer screening programme is urgently needed in Ireland, a Cork woman living with the devastating disease&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":509714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[258,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-509713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-cancer","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509713","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=509713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/509714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=509713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=509713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=509713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}