Tag Archives: cervical cancer

AN OPEN letter has been sent by the family of the late campaigner Laura Brennan appealing to health officials to reinstate the HPV vaccination scheme for teens. As the second anniversary of the Ennis woman’s untimely death from cervical cancer approaches, her family fear that the vaccination campaign, to which Laura dedicated her final years and months, is being thrown off course by pandemic restrictions. Laura’s work with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Health Service Executive (HSE), led to uptake rates for the HPV vaccine surpassing 80% nationally and 90% in Clare. Pandemic restrictions and school closures have disrupted the HPV vaccination programme normally available, free-of-charge, to boys and girls in first year at secondary school. The HSE describes the scheme as “paused” because school vaccination teams are currently involved in the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines. “We are all fully aware of the devastating impact Covid-19 has had on our country and the strain it has put on …

HPV vaccine campaigner Laura Brennan has lost her battle with terminal cancer on Wednesday. The Ennis woman who had become one of Ireland’s leading patient advocates and campaigners for the HPV vaccine passed away on Wednesday at University Hospital Limerick. In a statement the Brennan family said, “Laura was a light in the life of everyone who knew her; a wonderful daughter, sister and friend. We are lost without her. “We are all incredibly proud of the work she did in the last 18 months to help protect other young women like herself from the cancer that has taken her life today. Laura used her voice, her generosity and her energy to help parents to make informed choices and protect their daughters from cervical cancer. She wanted to make a difference, and use the time that she had to right what she felt was a great wrong.” The family have appealed for privacy. Funeral arrangements are yet to be finalised. …

Ennis woman Laura Brennan is fronting a European campaign encouraging parents to get the facts and vaccinate their children against HPV. Laura, 26, was diagnosed with terminal cervical cancer in 2017 has been working with the HSE to advocate for the vaccine. Last year, Laura was invited by the World Health Organisation to be an advocate across Europe and to mark World Cancer Day on February 4, a video is being released by the WHO. The video features Laura at home in Clare with her family and travelling to University Hospital Limerick for treatment, as well as on a trip to Copenhagen for meeting with the WHO. “This illness is devastating and it’s going to take my life but the good news is there’s a vaccine that you can get that prevents it. HPV caused my cancer. I just wanted parents to know there is an alternative,” says Laura Laura was too old to get the vaccine when it was …