AROUND 400 people gathered in The Square in Tralee on Monday evening for a silent vigil to stand in solidarity with Emma Mhic Mhathúna and all the other women and their families affected by the CervicalCheck scandal.

The 37 year old mother of five who lives in west Kerry was diagnosed with terminal cancer last week and she spoke to the crowd present at the event which was organised by Cllr Toireasa Ferris of Sinn Féin.

Emma thanked everybody for their support. She said she was sick of being treated “like nothing”. She said her death would not go unnoticed and she would make sure the health service would pay for what they are putting families through by the failings of the system.

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Emma became very emotional when she mentioned her children and expressed the hope that the people of Ireland would “adopt them and keep and eye out for them. It’s them that’s pushing me to do this,” she said. You can watch her full speech below…

Addressing the crowd afterwards, Cllr Ferris said there were people in the Square who had suffered due to the failings of the health service in this country.

She asked people to make their voices heard over the coming days and weeks to make sure Emma’s story will not become somebody else’s story in the future.

There followed a few minutes silence and afterwards Emma was surrounded by people who wanted to comfort her, express their good wishes and thank her for being so brave in going public with her story. Another vigil takes place at Ballydavid at 7.30pm this evening. Scroll down for photos….