Help get justice for NI women let down by the cervical screening programme
Ladies with Letter is a campaign group representing 17,500 women affected by the failures in Northern Ireland’s cervical screening programme. We are calling for a Statutory Public Inquiry to uncover the truth, hold the Southern Trust accountable, and restore faith in the system.
Join us in demanding answers and ensuring no woman will face such uncertainty again.
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Who we are
We are Ladies with Letters, a campaign group formed in response to the major healthcare scandal involving the Southern Health and Social Care Trust’s (SHSCT) cervical screening programme in Northern Ireland.
We are a collective of women who have been directly impacted by the cervical screening review, which affected around 17,500 women. Each of us received a letter from the Trust informing us that our past smear tests needed to be rechecked – a letter that brought about confusion and fear. Since the review began, at least two women, have tragically died and at least eight others have developed cervical cancer.
We’ve been inundated with women contacting us for support and clarity and on behalf of these women and all those affected, we are seeking answers and demanding accountability.
Our main goal is to secure a Statutory Public inquiry to uncover the truth and reform the system so that no woman will face such uncertainty again. If you need advice or want to support our cause please connect with us.
Together, our voices can be heard.
What happened
A 2023 report by the Royal College of Pathologists uncovered serious failings in cervical screening carried out by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust over a 13-year period. As a result, approximately 17,500 women were notified that they needed their cervical smear tests reviewed after it was discovered that many had been misread due to underperformance by the Trust.
The review found that several cytology staff were significantly underperforming, and these failures led to delayed diagnosis of cervical abnormalities and cervical cancer. Eight women went on to develop cervical cancer, two having since died, and another 11 women needed pre-cancerous treatment.
Lynsey Courtney, a mother of one from Portadown died in 2018, aged 30, following a misread smear and Erin Harbinson, a mother of four from Tandragee, died in 2024 at age 44 after three of her smear tests were misread.
The Ladies with Letters Group believes this scandal represents one of the most significant healthcare failures in Northern Ireland. We are calling for a Statutory Public Inquiry with the powers to establish the full unvarnished facts of what happened.
Our stories
Since the launch of the cervical cancer review of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, two women from Northern Ireland – Lynsey Courtney and Erin Harbinson – have died. Their stories continue to drive the Ladies with Letters Group to seek accountability and reform for all women across he region.
Lynsey Courtney‘s story
The heart-breaking story of Lynsey Courtney, a young mother from Portadown in County Armagh, is a powerful example of the devasting consequences of the mistakes made by the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.
Lynsey’s misread smear test and her diagnoses of advanced cervical cancer led to her untimely death in 2018 at only 30 years old.
Her family believes that her death was the result of mistakes and neglect within the health service, after wrongly being given the ‘all-clear’ in a previous smear test. After she was diagnosed Lynsey focused on her treatment and looking after her young son, but she did question how she became so unwell so quickly. Because of this, her family contacted the pathologist after her death to ask for a review of her smear test history. It was then that it was discovered that four cancerous cells were missed on her previous test.
In further meetings with medical professionals, the Courtney family asked if tests of other women would be re-checked but they were told no and reassured that ‘lessons had been learned’.
It would take five more years before a review was launched into cervical screening at the Southern Trust.
Lynsey’s parents believed that if their concerns were addressed at the time, other women would have been spared the fate of going on to develop cancer. They continue to fight with the Ladies with Letters group for justice and have been vocal in their call for a Statutory Public Inquiry.
Lynsey is survived by her son Callum (19) who is being raised by her parents Sandra and Ron, and, in her memory, her family established the Lynsey Courtney Foundation which has raised thousands of pounds towards cervical cancer research at Queen’s University Belfast.
Erin Harbinson‘s story
The discovery that three smear tests belonging to Erin Harbinson had been misread became one of the pivotal cases that led to the cervical screening review of the Southern Health and Social Care Trust, which ultimately involved 17,500 women.
A devoted and caring mother of four from Tandragee in County Armagh, Erin died in 2024, aged just 44, after being diagnosed with advanced stage cervical cancer in 2021.
Her diagnosis came after a decade of missed opportunities. An audit of her smear history found that three of her smear tests had previously been misread by biomedical scientists who missed the signs of cancer in 2012, 2015 and 2018.
Erin’s husband Trevor, her friends and family circle believe her death could have been prevented with doctor’s informing her at the time that interventions such as a colposcopy or hysterectomy might have saved her life, but by then the cancer had become incurable.
Despite undergoing intensive treatment, Erin became a fierce advocate for women’s health. She joined the Ladies with Letters campaign group to demand accountability and reform to protect other women from the same fate she faced, saying ‘Every woman I know – my daughter, my future daughter-in-law, and all the women I work with, everybody – I’m doing this to empower you, not to frighten you’.
What we need
We are calling for a Statutory Public Inquiry into the failures of the cervical screening programme in Northern Ireland. New data shows underperformance in cervical screening across all health trusts over several years.
The Ladies with Letters group seeks answers for unchecked failures spanning over a decade. A Statutory Public Inquiry is essential to hold the Southern Trust accountable and give a voice to the 17,500 affected women and their families. An inquiry is crucial to restore public faith in the cervical screening programme. We urge the Health Minister to establish this inquiry without further delay, with full powers to compel evidence and witnesses, prioritising those who have suffered the most.
Help strengthen our call for a Statutory Public Inquiry into the failures of the cervical screening programme by writing to your elected representative today, using this template.
Find your representative
Do you need support?
The Ladies with Letters group encourages all eligible women in Northern Ireland to participate in the cervical screening programme. The Northern Ireland Cervical Screening Programme has now transitioned to primary HPV testing and screening as one centralised service.
Symptoms of cervical cancer
The NHS website lists the main symptoms of cervical cancer as:
- vaginal bleeding that’s unusual for you – including during or after sex, between your periods or after the menopause, or having heavier periods than usual
- changes to your vaginal discharge
- pain during sex
- pain in your lower back, between your hip bones (pelvis), or in your lower tummy
For further support
Ladies with Letters
If you or your family are worried about your smear test results, no matter what trust area you fall under, the Ladies with Letters group is more than happy to provide you with support and guidance. You can get in touch by joining the Facebook page and reaching out to the group’s volunteers.
P.A. Duffy & Co Solicitors
A number of women who have been affected by the cervical screening scandal are pursuing legal action against the Southern Trust, as well as other Health Care Trusts in NI. The PA Duffy & Co team are working alongside the Ladies with Letters campaign group to provide legal support and are also representing a significant number of individuals who have been affected.
If you feel you need legal advice on this issue, contact Enda McGarrity on 028 8772 2102 or email enquiries@paduffy.com
website: https://www.paduffy-solicitors.com/
News
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Ladies with Letters respond to November Reports
Following the latest reports from The Southern Health and Social Care Trust and Public Health Agency, a spokesperson for the Ladies with Letters group has said: “The Ladies with Letters campaign group acknowledges the publication of the long-awaited reports commissioned by the Health Minister with the aim of establishing the facts of what happened in…
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MLAs stand with Ladies with Letters campaign group in its call for a Statutory Public Inquiry
Today (October 7, 2025), MLAs stood with the Ladies with Letters campaign group at Stormont to support the group’s call for a statutory public inquiry into the cervical screening scandal. This week marks two years since 17,500 women in the Southern Health & Social Care Trust (SHSCT) area received letters advising them that their smear…