Tag Archives: HPV Catch-Up Programme

Since 2019, the fight against “fake news” has become the motto for the public HPV vaccination campaign in which Laura Brennan and her group played a major role. That is one of the key messages from a new UK study by medical and data experts who analysed how the late Ennis HPV vaccine campaigner and her family helped to achieve a significant increase in the cervical cancer vaccination rate in Ireland by overcoming “fake news”. In this research, the authors studied vaccine hesitancy in relation to Covid-19 in France and Italy and then contrast this with the HPV vaccination discourse in Ireland. The report ‘Fighting Fake News: Online Disinformation in Covid Times’ is one of seven research studies funded under the British Academy’s Covid-19 Recovery: building future pandemic preparedness and understanding citizen engagement in the G7 programme. In 2010, the Irish government introduced a national vaccination campaign for young girls and boys against HPV. Up until 2015, a stable rate …

THE roll-out of a new Laura Brennan HPV Vaccination Catch-up programme and the increase in vaccination rates has been described as a “game changer in Irish health”. That’s the view of her parents, Larry and Bernie, who have vigorously continued their daughter’s courageous advocacy work before she died from this cancer, with the help of their three children, Colin, Fergal and Kevin. “In the long term, it will result in a big savings as cervical cancer treatment costs a huge amount. Vaccines do save lives, it could have saved Laura’s. We promised Laura we would continue her work after she died until we got to where we did.” Laura’s key message when she was awarded the 2019 Clare Person of the Year Award was to “live the best possible life you can”, which is also on her gravestone. Larry stressed ordinary people can make a difference, recalling his son, Kevin and some friends came up with placing the HPV logo …

A LATE Ennis HPV vaccine advocate has been honoured with a new catch-up vaccination programme that is named after her in collaboration with the Department of Health. Health Minister Stephen Donnelly lauded the tirelessly campaigning work of Laura Brennan when he spoke to reporters outside University Hospital Limerick on Thursday. Minister Donnelly and the family of the late Laura Brennan, have announced the Laura Brennan HPV Vaccine Catch-Up Programme.   Laura died with cervical cancer at the age of 26 in March 2019 but her legacy of advocacy of the HPV vaccine has lived on. Last October, she was honoured with a portrait in the Royal College of Physicians and the RCPI shared an image of Laura’s portrait recently to mark what would have been her 30thth birthday. “We remember her courage and grace as she bravely shared her story while advocating for the HPV vaccine. “Laura’s portrait sits proudly in our historic No.6 Kildare Street, a reminder of her …