Vicky Phelan was almost moved to tears as she accepted the Freedom of Limerick award on Thursday evening.
The CervicalCheck campaigner became the fifth woman ever to receive the award and the first woman this century to be given the Freedom of Limerick.
Vicky thanked the people of Limerick, her family and her friends as she accepted the highest honour that can be bestowed upon an individual by Limerick City and County Council.
She said: "It's a wonderful honour for me to be here today. When I got the phone call from Mayor Butler in December, I wasn't really feeling all that well… I was just hoping to get to Christmas at that point."
She added: "In my position with a terminal illness, you don't plan too far ahead… all I wanted was to be well enough to be able to come here and stand, not be in a wheelchair, things like that, small things that make a big difference to somebody like me. So I'm so delighted to be here today to accept this award myself."
Vicky admitted that she did not know much about the award before discovering that she would be receiving it.
She said: "All that I knew about it is that very few people get this award, and when Mayor Butler told me that I was only the fifth woman in history and the first woman this century to be awarded this Freedom of Limerick, sure I had to jump at it at that stage because me being me anything to get women ahead."
The mother of two added: "I'm very honoured to be named particularly among women like Maud Gonne and Trudy Hunt, and I really hope that after today there will be far more women that will be put forward and nominated for this award."
After watching a video of what the people of Limerick had to say about Vicky, the CervicalCheck advocate became emotional.
She said: "Mainly, I supposed who I have to thank for this is the people of Limerick after having watched that video there that nearly had me in tears, to be quite honest.
"Just to see the depth of feeling that's out there for me, which I know is there because I get all these lovely, I hope I don't get upset now, I get all these lovely cards and all these lovely messages from people across the country, and I've been getting them for the last four years, but I supposed in the most recent time, particularly in the last year since I had to go to America, since I've come home and because people know I'm so unwell it really means more to me because you can see how much it means to people that I'm still here.
"So for the people of Limerick to nominate me for this award and Mayor Butler told me about the amount of messages that were coming in from people across Limerick just wanting to do something nice for me, I just thought it was so lovely, and it really means a huge amount to me particularly because I'm not a born and bred limerick person.
"But as I said earlier, I've lived longer in Limerick than I have in Kilkenny at this stage, so I think I could probably be considered a limerick person at this point, and certainly if Limerick is playing Kilkenny in the All Ireland final, I'll be shouting for Limerick, not Kilkenny. That won't go down well at home, but you know that is the truth of it.
"And the other reason it means so much to me is because of why I'm getting the award because of the work that I've done, which is not really work."
She added: "You know I often say this to people. I never thought I'd see myself doing the kind of campaigning or advocacy work that I do and have been doing for the last four years.
"If you had asked me ten years ago or said to me ten years ago that id be up here getting awards or speaking at public account committees in the Dail or you know having fights with the Minister for Health or the Taoiseach, I think id have laughed you out of the room.
"But I think the reason it made all the difference to me is because somebody said this to me before work never seems like work when it's for something that you believe in, and I suppose for me this was never a job. This was something that I felt passionate about and more than passionate absolutely compelled to speak out because I knew it was helping other people."
