TOM SHIEL
CAMPAIGNERS FIGHTING to retain breast cancer services in Sligo General Hospital are to continue despite disappointment about the defeat this week of a joint Fine Gael/Labour motion on the issue. Lily McMorrow, a cancer patient and member of the Save Sligo Cancer Services Campaign, said she felt betrayed by local Fianna Fáil representatives who had marched alongside them for months but who voted with the Government on Wednesday night.
Ms McMorrow said she felt bitterly disappointed and “very hurt” that Fianna Fáil TDs who seemed passionate about the fact that no centre of excellence is planned for the region had voted against their constituents “because Brian Cowen told them to”.
Minister for Health Mary Harney told a local radio station Ocean FM yesterday that specialist centres provided women with the best chances of survival.
She said she could not live with herself “as a woman, as a politician and particularly as Minister for Health” if given the evidence available to her, she scrapped the strategy because it was unpopular.
Fine Gael councillor Imelda Henry said the Save Sligo Cancer Services Campaign would meet next Tuesday and would decide then what their next step will be. “The fight will continue,” she added.
Meanwhile, Mayo Fianna Fáil TDs Beverley Flynn and Dara Calleary came under fire in their constituency yesterday over their support for Ms Harney’s national cancer strategy.
Both deputies were criticised for not supporting a Fine Gael motion to retain cancer services at Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar.