“We don’t want to see this happen to anyone else in this country if it can be prevented.”
Cervical cancer campaigner Stephen Teap has vowed to keep “fighting for change” as he spoke about his late wife, Irene.
Mum-of-two Irene, from Cork, was diagnosed with stage-two cervical cancer in 2015.
She was given a terminal diagnosis in 2017, after two false negative tests in 2010 and 2013.
Cervical cancer campaigner Stephen Teap's special film for CBLive pic.twitter.com/64f07lZ2DV
— Upfront with Katie Hannon (@RTEUpfront) January 7, 2019
In an emotional video for Claire Byrne Live this week, Stephen recalled how it had been “love at first sight” when they got together at a young age.
They wed in 2011 and welcomed their first child, Oscar, in 2012. Their second son, Noah, was born in 2015.
“That was us. Our dreams, all of our plans for our future, were starting to come alive,” he added.
He spoke about how their world came crashing down in 2017 when Irene received the devastating diagnosis.
He continued:
“When you’re given a terminal diagnosis, it’s the most difficult news you can ever get. It’s like you’re being told about another person, it’s really hard to imagine it’s being said about you or your loved one.
“Irene was sitting beside me at the time, fully functional and they’re telling me she’s not going to live, that she’s only got a few weeks left, it’s the most difficult thing to get your head around. To be honest, I don’t think we ever did.
“We asked the question, ‘how long have we got?’. A few short weeks is what we were told.”
Stephen explained that Irene had immediately “put a milestone back into her head”, determined to live long enough to see her eldest son, Oscar, start primary school at the end of August that summer.
He added:
“That’s all she wanted to do, just see her little boy start primary school before she left us.”
Sadly, Irene passed away a week and a half after she received the terminal diagnosis.
When the Cervical Cancer Scandal broke in April 2018, the dad-of-two began a battle spanning months to obtain his wife’s old slides. He got them independently reviewed to determine if her cancer had been missed.
He continued:
“That’s when we got the news that there was a breach in duty of care in relation to Irene’s slides in 2010. If her slides were read correctly, she would still be alive today.
“She would have had to have the most minor of procedures and more than likely would still be able to have children and we would still be the family we set out to be.”
Stephen went on to explain how he was channeling his feelings into “fighting for change” and for answers for his two sons.
He said:
“Anger is a strange thing. I can shout, I can roar, I can punch the walls but at the end of the day none of that gets you anywhere.
“For me, it’s channelling that anger into do something with it and fight for answers for my boys for when I sit down with them in years to come to explain what happened to their mother and the scandal.
“Getting the answers for them; fighting for the support for us and the other women and families that have been dragged into this.
“Also, fighting for change. It’s the anger of all of this that motivates me to fight and to turn this negative into something positive.
“We don’t want to see this happen to anyone else in this country if it can be prevented.
“Ever since this scandal broke, this is the only way you can keep moving on.
“2019 is going to be a very busy year but at the core of this is myself, Oscar, Noah and the three of us moving forward together into this world and taking it day by day.
“At the end of all this, life is for living. It’s for moving forward and creating memories. It’s important that we keep doing that, keep putting one foot in front of the other and keep moving. Regardless of what direction it is in, I consider that moving forward.”
