Vicky Phelan, who exposed Irish smear tests scandal, dies at 48

Vicky Phelan was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, three years after the false negative. She was not told of the mistake until 2017. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

It was a death foretold but the news still hit Ireland hard: Vicky Phelan, a terminally ill campaigner who exposed a cervical cancer screening scandal, died on Monday. She was 48.

President Michael D Higgins led an outpouring of tributes to Phelan’s courage and how she shone a light on health service failures that affected hundreds of other women.