"I really want to leave physical bits of me for the kids to have."

Irish cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan has shared the gifts she gave her children to remember her by. Taking to Instagram over the Easter weekend, Vicky posted a series of photos of castings of her family's hands made by the Memory Lane Studio. In her caption, Vicky, who is undergoing palliative care, wrote about the importance of leaving physical memories of herself for her children. She explained that the artist, Sue, got in touch with her last winter to do castings of her family's hands. Vicky said: "Sue had gone through a rough period where she almost quit her casting business BUT watching me fight for my life in the States gave Sue the strength to carry on." https://www.instagram.com/p/Ccc6uAcMR7M/ Sue visited Vicky and her family to create the castings, a process which Vicky said was "so quick and easy". She continued: "Here are some of the pics of the final castings. There are three of them - one family one with our four hands intertwined (Jim, Amelia, Darragh and me) and then two individual ones with me and Amelia and me and Darragh for the kids to have as a reminder or memory of me. https://www.instagram.com/p/CcbGkKtLsyY/ "For me, it is so important to do these things and create physical memories that my kids will have I am gone. I cannot thank Sue enough for making this possible for me and for taking on this project and making the whole thing so easy for me because THIS situation that I find myself in is NOT easy BUT I really want to leave behind physical bits of me for the kids to have." Also this weekend, Vicky shared Paul MacCormaic's portrait of her, which is currently sitting in the RHA Gallery in Dublin.