you. We talked about our kids and our families and how we felt about death...Today I live. Three years on and I feel more like myself now but when I speak to someone on the phone who has been through hell because of our health system it makes me so angry...I will always fight to change it because the madness has to stop." --he Sunday World, August 2006 About the Author Janette Byrne is a founder member of and full-time spokesperson for Patients Together. I was lucky when I got cancer in Ireland. I had private health insurance (I had taken it out about 13 months beforehand, phew) This is the story of a woman's fight to get treatment. It broke my heart reading about how she had to fight and how she was treated as a liar in the Dail. Although not altogether typical of a cancer patient's experience this is one of the harrowing kinds, full of hope though. I walked away from it feeling anger at politicians and warmth from her hope and optimism.