# Overcoming

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/vicky-phelan/overcoming/9781529318708

![Overcoming](https://quivercdn.com/covers/hachette-books-ireland/vicky-phelan/overcoming_978-15-2931-870-8.jpg?v=2026-05-12%2022%3A27%3A03)

- Book: [Overcoming](https://www.bookquiver.com/vicky-phelan/overcoming) ([Overcoming.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/vicky-phelan/overcoming.md))
- Authors: [Vicky Phelan](https://www.bookquiver.com/vicky-phelan)
- Publisher: hachette_books_ireland
- ISBN: 978-15-2931-870-8
- Pages: 1
- Published: 2019-09-12
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

Sunday Times Memoir of the Year 2019 RTÉ Radio 1 Listeners' Choice Award Winner 2019 - An Post Irish Book Awards When Vicky Phelan delivered an emotionally charged statement from the steps of the Four Courts in April 2018 - having refused to sign a non-disclosure agreement in the settlement of her action against the HSE - she unearthed the medical and political scandal of our times. It would emerge that, like Vicky, 220 other women who were diagnosed with cervical cancer were not informed that a clinical audit -carried out by the national screen programme CervicalCheck - had revised their earlier, negative smear tests. Their cancers could possibly have been preventable. Since then, Vicky has become women's voice for justice on the issue, and her system-changing activism has made her a household name. In her memoir Overcoming, Vicky shares her remarkable personal story, from a life-threatening accident in early adulthood through to motherhood, a battle with depression, her devastating later discovery that her cancer had returned in shocking circumstances - and the ensuing detective-like scrutiny of events that led the charge for her history-making legal action. An inspiring story of rare resilience and power, Overcoming is an account of how one woman can move mountains - even when she is fighting for her own life - and of finding happiness and strength in the toughest of times. 'Calls to mind the work of Emilie Pine, or the memoir by Maggie O'Farrell, I Am, I Am, I Am ... Overcoming is more than the retelling of an extraordinary life. Its pacing and gentleness leaves plenty of room for tears and for reflection' Irish Independent